Article: Instructional Practices
Engaging Students on the First Day of Class: Student-Generated Questions Promote Positive Course Expectations
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology
Derek’s
Recommendation
This is a nice bit of scholarship of teaching and learning focused on one particular approach to a first day of class. The approach involves both active learning and helping students connect their interests to course material, and it works!
Presented here is a simple activity created for general psychology that provides a brief overview of course content and strives to promote early class interaction. The activity addresses the need for an engaging, content-related activity that avoids a formal lecture but still provides an introductory course overview. The design attempts to increase students’ excitement about psychology and encourage each student to take an active role in identifying and discussing their own psychological questions. Study 1 examines if simply performing the activity affects students’ perceptions for the upcoming course. Study 2 controls for time and content presentation and explores if the positive course perceptions continue to the next class period.