One year ago, I was greeting my 30 third graders. Students came into the classroom with crayon colored artwork, miscellaneous items found outside, and were excited to tell me about their stories from yesterday and the fun video games they played last night. Now I stand as a college instructor teaching 19 undergraduate students from college freshman to seniors ready to graduate. They come into my morning class with air pods in, coffee in hand, and exhausted from late night intramural games and sorority events.
Regardless of the age of students, I am charged with the same task, to inspire and motivate students to love learning and live transformed. Throughout education preparatory classes, future teachers are taught techniques to motivate, engage, and form their students as they teach material. Transitioning into this new university instructor role, I see how the kindergarten through high school (K-12) teacher training has helped increase engagement, connection, and learning in the college classroom environment. The high-quality teaching practices are not just confined into the elementary, middle, and high school spheres of teaching. College professors should consider the same essential techniques that teachers use in the K-12 setting to engage students and build a classroom community. While college students may be more mature and have more autonomy, the teaching quality and techniques translate seamlessly into the college sector.
Using research and personal experience, I present three key practices that shape K-12 teaching which are also essential for higher education professors and their students. Professors must develop relationships, expect and create engagement, and use explicit instruction. As we unpack each of these strategies for effective teaching and classroom culture, there will be easily transferable ideas to implement into every college class regardless of content or size.
1. Build Relationships That Create Belonging
To begin, any K-12 educator knows relationships are essential to learning (Speakman-Spickard, 2019). Professors then need to lead out in caring for students, letting them know they are valued, and creating an atmosphere of belonging. Pamela Ertel (2014) shares from the ABC’s of Classroom Management that within the K-12 classroom, teachers greeting students at the door creates a culture of care for students. In addition, knowing each student by name (Miller, 2024) and creating morning meetings (Kriete, 2002) or moments for students to connect transforms the classroom environment. Even in the college setting, students need to feel welcomed into the learning space. As I taught, I tried to embody the role of hospitality for college students especially needed in the windowless basement room where our leadership class met. Enthusiasm and joy were the decorations I brought into the space. Regardless of the classroom setting, professors can set the tone of welcome and excitement even without colorful and motivating decorations like those that once filled my former third grade classroom. Therefore, I greeted each college student at the door before class and then rotated the role for students to welcome their peers each day at least five minutes before class began.
As James Lang (2016) writes,“emotions capture the attention of our students” while also focusing on “the immense power that personal connections and relationships have on the total college experience for students, including the learning that takes place in the classroom” (pp. 173, 177). Coming early to class and greeting students can help build and form relationships as the professor gets to hear their stories, frustrations, and see each student (Eng, 2017, pp. 34,101). The additional time it takes to welcome students, engage in a class question, or partner dialogue helps build relationships and encourage students to be more involved in the class. When students are seen, they begin to share more and a sense of community connects the class together.
Often professors do not prioritize building relationships but focus more on the content. Seeing students as people is essential before instilling the rich, learning material. Susan Blum (2024) in her book Schoolishness, quotes educator Sean Michael Morris, who enhances this idea that teachers should orient “toward nurturing not just the intellect of your students but also their emotional lives. Love in pedagogical works is an orientation…it is a decision to commit first to the community of learners and second to the material we’ve come to teach” (p. 246). When we focus on building relationships, seeing the college students as whole beings, and knowing them on a personal level, our classrooms will be effective and influential. All teachers at all levels need to develop relationships with their students.
2. Create and Expect Active Engagement
When both teacher-to-student and peer-to-peer interactions occur, it helps to create effective classroom engagement. Understanding Vygotsky’s idea of social-constructivism, students learn through engaging in interactions with others. Therefore, professors need to create and expect engagement in each class. One question professors can ask each day is, “How can I get my students engaged and interacting in this lesson?” Often college students come into the class ready to be lectured at or watch a slideshow of material where they check-out. In K-12 classrooms, students have multi-modal learning with hands-on instruction, movement around the room, and pair + share opportunities with partners. Professors need to expect students to engage and create moments for them to partake in the learning using their whole selves.
In the college course, I started each day with a question to frame the class discussion. Students were able to ease into the classroom discussion through simple conversation that led to deep dialogue and debate over a variety of topics. Other class activities included acting out roles and modeling leadership scenarios. Afterwards, the students eagerly asked for more opportunities to interact and engage in these types of ways. Additionally, in order to engage college students with their whole selves, they also need to activate their learning using movement with their physical bodies in the classroom. Human continuums are a great way to get students up and thinking critically while interacting productively with their peers (Teach Britannica, 2025). The movement and discussion encourages connection, deeper learning, and brings a change to “normal” lecture style instruction.
3. Give Students the Clarity They Need to Succeed
Finally, even college students need explicit, simple instructions. Clarity is key. Undergraduate students need clear expectations beyond the written syllabus. Often there are assumptions that both professors and students have in which the lack of met expectation causes frustration. This notion was revealed in my current undergraduate class when two guest speakers came in to share. The first shared wonderful engaging points but students did not take notes. The next speaker said “write this down” and all students swiftly proceeded to take out their notebooks to diligently take notes. Each class following, I explicitly told them “take out your notes,” echoing similar instructions I would use to guide for my elementary classroom procedures.
The students needed the prompting and encouragement instead of me assuming they would automatically take notes, because students have to be trained in the expectations desired of them. Using resources like Teach like a Champion helps in giving practical tools and strategies to support teaching and student learning (Lemov, 2021). From teaching third grade to teaching college, students need clear, explicit instructions which embody techniques useful for all ages.
Therefore, from kindergarten to the college seniors, and from hand drawn pictures and playground stories to airpods and coffee mugs, the simple teaching techniques that engage rug time stories also help to capture tuned out college students. All students desire to belong, be known, and be given purpose. Professors need to develop relationships, expect and plan for engagement, and have explicit instructions which does not belittle their students but rather elevates the learning and connectedness in the classroom.
Meredith A. Frey, MA, is a current PhD student in P-12 Educational Leadership at Baylor University and teaching an undergraduate course on Leadership. She completed her undergraduate studies at Wheaton College in Elementary Education with a minor in Urban Studies. While receiving her master’s in Educational Leadership, she taught elementary at a classical school in Texas and was a fellow with the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Outside of researching global education, AI in schools, outdoor education, and creating thriving learning communities within schools, Meredith loves connecting with people over coffee conversations and being active through run clubs, pickleball, and traveling.
References
Blum, S. D. (2024). Schoolishness: Alienated education and the quest for authentic, joyful learning. Cornell University Press.
Eng, N. (2017). Teaching college: The ultimate guide to lecturing, presenting, and engaging students. Norman Eng.
Ertel, P. A. K., & Kovarik, M. (2014). Greetings. In The ABC’s of Classroom Management (2nd ed., pp. 55–55). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203765333-88
Kriete, R. (2002). The Morning Meeting Book. Northeast Foundation for Children.
Lang, J. M. (2016). Small Teaching. Jossey-Bass.
Lemov, D. (2021). Teach like a champion 3.0: 63 techniques that put students on the path to college. (Third edition). Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint.
Miller, M. (2024) A teacher’s guide to learning student’s names: Why you should, why it’s hard. The University of Oklahoma Press.
Human continuum. Teach Britannica. (2025, February 7). https://teachbritannica.com/instructional-strategy/human-continuum/#:~:text=Human%20Continuum%20is%20a%20discussion,a%20diverse%20range%20of%20opinions
Speakman-Spickard, S., & Collier, K. (2019). Classroom Protocols. AMLE Magazine, 7(3), 9-12. https://www.amle.org/classroom-protocols/