By Lee Trepanier, March 29, 2012 in Pedagogy and Teaching
I thought this week that I would pause for a moment and reflect upon the set of students that are enrolled in my Introduction to Political Science course. The students have reached a point in the semester where they are comfortable enough with each other to speak their own minds in the classroom and pretty much know each other’s political inclinations. The weakest students already have dropped out of the course or have given up and no longer show up in class, so I have a pretty good set of students from the B- to A+ range. I had hoped to establish a sense of community in the classroom, and I think I have succeeded in this task. In this sense, it makes the task of teaching and learning more enjoyable (or bearable to the students) because they know they are not alone.