With classes about to begin for a new semester at colleges and universities across the world, instructors and students are preparing for the common experience of the first day of class. The first day of class of any given course is something that happens only once and can be over so quickly – perhaps too quickly to optimize the value and impact of that first day. The first day of class should be much more than “syllabus day” – the first day of class is hugely important in setting the tone for the entire semester in many ways. The first day of class is a day on which we can nurture our students’ voices and promote their engagement and intrinsic motivation for learning (Saucier, 2020). As instructors, we should prepare to rock the first day of class every semester as we introduce ourselves and our content to a new cohort of students.
Inform and Inspire
On the first day of class, our goal as instructors is to inform and inspire our students. We want to describe our course and its content in a way that informs our students about what we will learn together and inspires our students to come back on the second day to learn that with us. And that really is the ultimate goal of the first day of class – to inspire students to come back for the second day, and then the third day, and so on. We may achieve that goal by designing a first day that will make memories for our students.
Reflections
At the end of the Fall 2023 semester, we asked the students in our classes about their favorite memories from the semester (see Engage the Sage, 2023a). It was fulfilling to read about how they connected to the content we learned together, the activities we engaged in, and the missions and assignments they completed. It was also amazing to see that some of our students’ memories were from things we had done in the first week and even on the first day of our class. Accordingly, we encourage instructors to think about how they can make some memories for their students on that first day of their class.
As each semester approaches, we recommend that instructors think about what they want their students to remember about their class for the rest of the semester and potentially beyond. Below, we list several ideas that instructors may consider creating memories for their students on the first day of their classes. These ideas may be applied in classes of any size, level, or discipline.
Bring PEACE to Your Students
Maya Angelou famously said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” On the first day of class, we have the opportunity as instructors to bring PEACE to our students to help them feel supported and to develop rapport and trust that we are ready, able, and willing to help them learn this semester. “PEACE”, beyond being a wonderful word to describe the warmth and connection of a nurturing learning environment, is an acronym that specifies five foundations of excellent teaching: Preparation, Expertise, Authenticity, Caring, and Engagement (Saucier, 2019; Saucier, 2022; Saucier, Jones, Schiffer, & Renken, 2022).
On the first day, we recommend that instructors demonstrate that they have prepared a thoughtful course with a clear and intentional structure (Preparation); that they have the content knowledge and teaching skills to deliver the course successfully (Expertise); that they are actual human people with thoughts, feelings, and lives outside the classroom, and not just brilliant robots (Authenticity); that they care about their students’ learning, experiences, and well-being, and that they believe in their ability to succeed in the class (Caring); and that they are enthusiastic and invested in the course content and in the process of teaching that content to them (Engagement). This latter component, the instructor’s engagement, may then “trickle down” to enhance their students’ engagement and ultimate learning (Saucier, Miller, Martens, & Jones, 2022).
Foreshadow Engaging Content, Activities, and Assignments
On the first day of class, instructors should take the opportunity to promote the wonderful things the students will learn in the class, the activities they will complete to deepen their learning, and the ways in which they will be offered to demonstrate their learning. Instructors can and should provide teasers for the upcoming big learning moments (e.g., important and/or intriguing content and skills) and engaging activities and assignments. Beyond this foreshadowing, instructors should have their students do something on the first day that begins their learning and establishes the classroom as a supportive community of learners. Activities could include putting students in small groups to acquaint and complete an activity, teasing the content with a pretest of course knowledge, and identifying their goals for their semester. Throughout these activities, instructors should model their authentic engagement in the course, intrigue their students with the content (e.g., through historical or pop culture examples, with storytelling), and provide students the opportunity to ask questions (e.g., about the course, the university, the instructors as people) to nurture students in using their voices. These activities require intentional design but will make the first day more memorable than a typical “syllabus day.”
Provide Explicit Recommendations for Your Students’ Success
Instructors will want their students to remember not only that they want them to do well in their course, but how to do well in their course. A great way for instructors to show students that they care about their learning and performance, and to help them actually learn and perform better, is to provide explicit recommendations about how to do well in their course. This could include recommendations related to attending class, how to take notes in your course, how to access course resources, how and when to contact you with questions or concerns, and when to begin assignments. Some of these recommendations will be useful on the first day and will help students understand their instructors’ authentic commitment to their learning and success. These recommendations could also be posted as a document or video resource (see Engage the Sage, 2023b) that instructors can refer students to throughout the semester. It may be particularly powerful to provide the current semester’s students recommendations about how to do well in the course from previous semesters’ students collected perhaps as part of an end of the semester reflection.
We recommend that instructors prepare the structure, content, activities, and interactions for their first classes of the semester intentionally to make memories for themselves and their students. Rather than planning to just read the syllabus to your students, we recommend that instructors go into their first classes each semester with the goals to inform and inspire, and to make memories. It may be a practical goal to design your first class with at least five elements that you hope will create memories for your students that inform them about the course, inspire them to come back, motivate them to learn and succeed, show that you value your students, and reassure them that you will bring PEACE not only on the first day of class, but on every day of the semester.
Donald A. Saucier, Ph.D. (2001, University of Vermont) is a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar and Professor of Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University. Saucier has published more than 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a Fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Midwestern Psychological Association. His awards and honors include the University Distinguished Faculty Award for Mentoring of Undergraduate Students in Research, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Teaching Resource Prize. Saucier is also the Faculty Associate Director of the Teaching and Learning Center at Kansas State University and offers a YouTube channel called “Engage the Sage” that describes his teaching philosophy, practices, and experiences.
Noah D. Renken, M.S. completed his master’s degree in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Human Development & Family Science at Kansas State University. Noah’s recent work has examined masculine honor ideology and the manifestation of attitudes towards stigmatized events (e.g., sexual violence, trauma). Noah also worked in the Teaching and Learning Center at Kansas State University, where he collaborated with Don Saucier and Ashley Schiffer on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) projects.
Colleen E. Fulton, B.S. graduated from Kansas State University in 2024 with bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Sociology. Colleen was an undergraduate research collaborator in the social-personality psychology lab run by Don Saucier, Noah Renken, and Ashley Schiffer in the Department of Psychological Sciences where she collaborated with them on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) projects.
Ashley A. Schiffer, M.S. is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University. Her research interests include morality in relation to masculine honor ideology and/or military settings as well as examination of issues related to body autonomy (e.g., Death with Dignity). Ashley also works at Kansas State’s Teaching and Learning Center with Don Saucier and Noah Renken to promote teaching excellence and contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
References
Engage the Sage. (2023a). Engage the Sage: Favorite memories from the semester [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/dl5wS3XqR50.
Engage the Sage. (2023b). Engage the Sage: Top 10 ways to succeed in college classes (as a student) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/0lOB1Kkb6gc.
Saucier, D. A. (2019, September 9th). Bringing PEACE to the classroom. Faculty Focus.
Saucier, D. A. (2020). Rocking your first day of class (and beyond!). E-xcellence in Teaching, Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Retrieved from: https://teachpsych.org/E-xcellence-in-Teaching-Blog/8454525
Saucier, D. A. (2022, February 23rd). Bringing PEACE to support all students. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2022/02/23/professors-should-learn-about-respond-students-unique-experiences-opinion
Saucier, D. A., Jones, T. L., Schiffer, A. A., & Renken, N. D. (2022). The empathetic course design perspective. Applied Economics Teaching Resources, 4(4), 101-111.
Saucier, D. A., Miller, S. S., Martens, A. L., & Jones, T. L. (2022). Trickle down engagement: Effects of perceived teacher and student engagement on learning outcomes. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 33(2), 168-179.