Classroom Conversations

Developed by the Center for Transformative Teaching

The discussion prompts in these cards encourage students to consider their role - not only as students, but also as lifelong learners - and try to elicit information to help create a supportive classroom culture.

Thoughtfully considering these questions can also help students be more engaged, intentional, and self-directed.

Through engaging in these conversations with your students you can expect to achieve a better sense of their approaches to learning and who they are as individuals.

After hearing student responses, the educator reflection prompts encourage you to consider your role as an instructor. Specific questions are provided on each card, but with all these conversations you might consider questions such as:

How can changes in your instructional approach cause different student reactions?
In what ways do your students' responses make you view your role and responsibilities as their instructor differently?
Do students know about and feel comfortable using the support resources available to them?
How do your students' experiences and mindsets seem to differ from your own?
Do their responses indicate "student" behaviors, cultural norms, or human behaviors?

N150 Alignment

This resources was developed to contribute to the University's mission as outlined in the N150 report. In particular, these resources are meant to align with these mission components:

Empower our students to co-create their learning experiences
Instill a life-long desire to learn, inquire, and explore

Resource Pages

The following resource pages include the text from the cards directly, example scenarios of how they might be used in the classroom, related resources if you're interested in digging deeper, and an opportunity to provide feedback. Currently, there are 15 topics:

Recommendations for Use

When and how you raise these topics with your students is important. We've provided some recommendations below (and on the cards), but every class is unique. Use the recommendations as guidelines but also trust your own judgement.

For some of you, directly asking your students to answer the question may not feel natural. Some of the examples provided on the resource pages provide alternative ways of approaching the topic with your students. These topics are valuable to consider with your students, but feel free to talk with your Instructional Designer to find a way that feels natural for you.

Students may be reluctant to share their personal experiences if a foundation of trust has not been established. Give students the time and space they need to open up on their own schedule.

With any approach it may be valuable to reflect on these questions yourself and model thoughtful responses for your students. A good way to let your students know that it's okay to be vulnerable is by sharing your own experiences first.

When to Use These
How to Use These

When to Use These

Many of these questions ask students to share experiences from their educational journey. Asking the right question at the right time can have a profound impact.

Conversely, an ill-timed question could land poorly. For example, if you ask about limitations of attention in the middle of a class session, students may view it as a passive- aggressive way to call them out for it.

Below are the different times in the semester that we've identified as likely effective times to open a dialogue with your students. These icons can be found at the top of each card, and at the top of each resource page.

Start of the Semester

The first week is a unique opportunity to set expectations and reflect on previous learning without judgement.
Topics: Distractions, Limitations of Attention, Prioritization, Understanding Roles, Outside Responsibilities, Collaboration, Support Structures

Once a Routine is Established

After students have gotten a sense of what to expect in your course, you may want to have some new conversations.

Topics: Prioritization, Motivation, Seeking Challenge, Error Acceptance, Growth Mindset, Acknowledging "Stuckness", Assessment, Support Structures, Responding to Critical Feedback, Metacognition

After First Major Assessment

If students are struggling, these topics can give them a clear path forward.

Topics: Seeking Challenge, Error Acceptance, Growth Mindset, Support Structures, Responding to Critical Feedback

Before Starting a Group Project

Group work is effective, but challenging. Prep groups for successful collaboration.

Topics: Distractions, Prioritization, Understanding Roles, Outside Responsibilities, Collaboration, Responding to Critical Feedback

When Energy Levels are Low

Around weeks 10-12. You’ll feel it... Start your class with these discussions.

Topics: Limitations of Attention, Outside Responsibilities, Motivation, Growth Mindset, Acknowledging "Stuckness", Metacognition

During Office Hours

Consider asking these questions to help students work through unique problems.

Topics: Outside Responsibilities, Motivation, Seeking Challenge, Acknowledging "Stuckness", Support Structures, Metacognition

How to Use These

Discussing personal life experiences can feel uncomfortable, particularly for students who tend to be more introverted. Even if students don’t directly provide responses, allowing space for reflection can have a similar impact.

With some topics, asking students to share responses can help inform our teaching practices and establish a classroom community. Others may cause discomfort.

Below are the different ways we've identified to help you respectfully invite students into these conversations. These icons can be found at the top of each card, and at the top of each resource page.

Personal Reflection

In some cases, students may be reluctant to share responses with you or their classmates. Private reflection is still valuable.

Topics: Distractions, Limitations of Attention, Prioritization, Motivation, Seeking Challenge, Error Acceptance, Growth Mindset, Acknowledging "Stuckness", Assessment, Responding to Critical Feedback, Metacognition

Collaborative Discussion

Start with talking to neighbors, then bring it to the whole classroom. Students need to know they aren’t on their own.

Topics: Distractions, Limitations of Attention, Prioritization, Understanding Roles, Outside Responsibilities, Collaboration, Motivation, Seeking Challenge, Acknowledging "Stuckness", Assessment, Support Structures, Metacognition

One-Minute Papers

Writing provides an outlet for students to share their thoughts just with you.

Topics: Distractions, Prioritization, Understanding Roles, Collaboration, Motivation, Seeking Challenge, Error Acceptance, Growth Mindset, Acknowledging "Stuckness", Assessment, Responding to Critical Feedback

Group Papers

After discussion, you might have students collaboratively write a brief response incorporating diverse ideas.

Topics: Distractions, Limitations of Attention, Understanding Roles, Outside Responsibilities, Collaboration, Assessment, Support Structures, Responding to Critical Feedback, Metacognition

One-on-One Conversations

Once you’re familiar with these topics, you may find organic opportunities to chat with individual students. Or students can pair up in the classroom.

Topics: Seeking Challenge, Acknowledging "Stuckness", Support Structures, Metacognition

Request a Copy

Since this is a new resources, we would like to collect data to measure interest in this resource. Please complete the form below to request your copy. This data will not be used for anything other than tracking interest in the Classroom Conversations resource.

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Invitation to Provide Feedback

These cards are still in their early stages and we want to make sure they are designed in a way that is most helpful to instructors at this University. If you would like to provide feedback on a specific card you can find links within each topic resource page to provide specific feedback.

If you have more general feedback about the project, or would like to speak directly with someone about the ongoing development of this resource, please contact Steven Cain.

Classroom Conversation Cards were created by Steven Cain with developmental input from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Transformative Teaching. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.