Classroom Clarity & Transparency
When students understand how class activities are aligned with course outcomes and program missions, they are better able to integrate their learning into their own educational and personal goals
Being explicit about the reasoning behind specific choices we make when creating a class culture—deadlines, the use of name plates, assignments, the number of allowed absences, opening exercises—helps students understand that the classroom is not randomly (or secretly) designed. All of the choices we make should have a clear purpose that students understand, and they should feel comfortable questioning that purpose.
Clarity and transparency in education are especially crucial values for adult students.
- Nontraditional students may have individual goals that vary from one another; with more understanding of the goals of the course, students will be better equipped to make informed choices related to their own personal objectives.
- Transparency can be practiced at every scale, from the overall course, to individual classes, to breakout room activities.
- The syllabus should reflect the values and policies of the sponsoring institution and course, but it should also give students a sense of what to expect, avoid jargon, name course goals and expectations, and list all pertinent information and available supports for students.
- Assignments should be appealing and meaningful to students with diverse backgrounds and life experience.
“Clemente reignited the student in me. It challenged me to live up to my full potential. Each class gave me something to build on the foundation I already had.”
– Monique Henry, Harlem Clemente Graduate
Guiding Principles
Principle 1: Use Backward Design
The first step to transparency with students is for teachers to clarify for themselves how the different parts of the course fit with its overall goals, objectives, and outcomes. Course planning that begins with clear goals and collaborative learning objectives is also a foundational value of backward design. In this method of course planning, which provides a straightforward template for planning for transparency, faculty first outline the learning objectives then consider what kinds of reading, classroom projects, and low-stakes and formal writing assignments would allow students space to practice and build these skills.
Principle 2: Scaffold Assignments
Assignments that clearly build on each other offer more transparency to students about learning objectives and how skills develop. With backward design, the way that assignments build toward course goals will be clear to the instructor, but even if the logic feels self-evident to the teacher, it is helpful to point it out to students.
Principle 3: Design a Clear Syllabus
A successful syllabus guides students’ learning and explains course materials and expectations. When designing a syllabus, it is important to present clear descriptions and guidelines for learning goals, outcomes, assignments, attendance, evaluation, self assessment, class participation, and policies for classroom conduct, because students need this information to be prepared for the work ahead. Students may not review the syllabus carefully on their own, so it is crucial to go over it in class to make sure students understand what is expected of them.
Principle 4: Contextualize Course Content
Even when students understand the goals of the course, program, and institution, they may not necessarily connect these goals to other realms. Faculty should remind students where and when skills, themes, and conversations show up in different classrooms and disciplines, as well as in professional or civic life. For example, it can be useful to host frank discussions of the role of Standard Written English (SWE), versus other dialects, so that students who are less familiar with SWE have an opportunity to explore and consider the reasons for learning or resisting expectations to speak or write in particular dialects.
Anecdote: Lost in the pumpkin patch
During one of the first Clemente Veterans Initiatives—in this case it was all women, most of whom lived together in a transitional housing program—many class discussions would quickly morph into personal discussions, sometimes hashing out issues that came up in the residence, and the students got very frustrated about it. This disrespected the focused time they had committing to learning and their expectations for that time
In the middle of a pretty heated and off-topic discussion, one student threw up her hands and said, “What is going on here? I feel like I’m lost in my Aunt Sally’s pumpkin patch!” It completely defused the tension in the room, and through the rest of the course, whenever anyone mentioned “Aunt Sally's pumpkin patch” everyone knew that was a signal that the discussion might be going sideways. It gave the students a tool to manage the classroom themselves in a playful and supportive way.
Practices
Practice 1: Regularly Restate What the Class Is Doing
Remember that what may seem obvious to you as the teacher is not necessarily clear to the students. Restate regularly what the class has been doing in individual course meetings/discussions/assignments and how it connects to the overall course goals.
- “This is a question that doesn’t have a ‘right’ answer.”
- “The reason we’re doing this next thing is…”
Practice 2: Ask Students to Restate What the Class Is Doing
Sometimes the logic of an assignment can feel self-evident to a teacher, such that the teacher doesn’t or can’t explain it to students. A good practice is to ask students to repeat back the questions/ assignment/requirements in their own words. This way, the teacher can be sure that it was understood.
Practice 3: Daily Frames
A daily frame is an overview of the main goals of the day’s lessons. Offering a daily frame to connect class material to course goals can keep classroom time transparent and build mutual accountability into sticking with the day’s plan. A summary at the end of class also prompts reflection.
- Write goals for each individual class on the board and come back to those goals at the end of class.
- Examples of class session goals might be something as simple as understanding terms from a discipline (“form” vs. “content”). Or to recognize how a historical moment affects artistic production, or how close readings of text can reveal something about a historical era. Other topics for a focused class that we’ve used include:
- Finding common underlying structures (the hero’s journey, a stranger comes to town)
- Reconciling seemingly contradictory historical documents
- Understanding how texts are read differently by varying audiences and through different disciplines
- Discussing the death of the author; that is, downplaying the primacy of an author’s intention versus the interpretation of readers