What’s Done on Day One? Set the Tone for the Long Run
Keywords: First day of class, GAISE, active learning
Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
Lawrence Lesser
When a course begins, students may not arrive with abundant background knowledge (and certainly haven’t yet done any assigned reading in the textbook), but do arrive with confusion, concerns, and/or (mis)conceptions about the course and discipline. A review of the literature about “Day 1� (Lesser and Kephart, 2011) suggests that first impressions may make a lasting difference in student attitudes, motivation, etc. This paper discusses how instructors can go beyond calling roll and rolling through the syllabus and help set the tone by building classroom norms of active learning and stimulating statistical habits of mind and questioning.
