How to Ask Students to Set Expectations of the Educator

September 7, 2022 | Caitlin O’R. B. Carter, Ph.D. (she/her/hers), Co-founder and Chief Academic Officer

Here’s a simple model for of how to introduce the question “What do you expect of me?” to your students. Tailor it to your needs.

1. Set students up by doing an activity that models what you expect of them. (In my case an activity requiring the use of circumlocution, so they understand how to stay in the target language in my second-language classroom).

2. At the end of the activity say something like: “This, plus item 1 and 2 mentioned in the syllabus, are what I expect from you.” Items 1 and 2 are always things that contribute to the environment, such as respect for others and myself, or punctuality.

3. Ask: “What do you expect from me?”

4. Put their suggestions somewhere visible. Type it straight onto your course homepage. Write it on the board. Show them you’re engaged in remembering their suggestions.

5. Finish by asking what they expect of each other.

6. Optional recap shows you were listening. “I commit to X; you all commit to Y; and for each other you’ll commit to Z.”

7. If you wrote on the board, take a picture of the lists created and publish the lists to the course homepage on the university’s LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, Moodle).

Tip: For those teaching multiple courses/sections, do not modify lists of what students expect of you and each other by posting identical lists to each class page. You don’t want students thinking, “I didn’t commit to support my peers by doing X.” Be accountable. Show them you listened to their individual needs. Keep the lists customized to each class.

Caitlin O’R. B. Carter, Ph.D.

Caitlin is Co-founder and CAO of WrightU. She is a profoundly empathetic educator with more than a decade of experience in Higher Education. She is a regular contributor to Wright Writes.