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Teaching and Learning Centre

Pedagogical competence in higher education

Activation and orientation

Entrance tickets

Goal: activation, summary, reflection
Length: 5 minutes
Group size: individually
Materials: pen and paper

How to:

  1. At the start of the class, ask students to write down what question they want to get an answer to during this lesson.
    Time: less than 5 minutes
  2. After class, ask the students if their question was answered. Answer any unanswered questions from the students.
    Time: 5 minutes (depends on the amount of unanswered questions)

Knowledge warm-up

Goal: activation
Length: 5-10 minutes
Group size: individual/group
Materials: pen and paper

Preparations:
Prepare an argument, problem, question or news article related to the topic of the class.

How to:

  1. Before introducing the topic of the class, present the students with the prepared question.
  2. Ask the students to think about the question individually.
  3. Start a brief group discussion on the topic and ask the students what comes to mind when thinking about the question.

Compiling the knowledge base

Goal: activating prior knowledge, building knowledge together
Length: 15-20 minutes
Group size: groups of 4-5
Materials: pen and paper

How to:

  1. Introduce the topic of the class.
  2. Ask the groups to briefly share their thoughts or questions.
    Time: 5 minutes
  3. Form groups of 4-5 students. The members of the group each share their thoughts. As a group, they gather all the information in writing. Any questions that arise can be written down as well.
    Time: 5-10 minutes.
  4. Ask each student individually to write down 3-5 thoughts that come to mind when thinking about the topic.
    Time: 5 minutes

Minute circle

Goal: activation or tuning in
Length: depends on group size
Group size: any
Materials: –

How to:

  1. Introduce the topic of discussion to the students. Give them a couple of minutes to gather and structure their thoughts.
  2. Every student gets exactly one minute to share their thoughts on the topic. Use a timer to make sure that it is exactly one minute.
  3. After every student has shared their thoughts, it is recommended to either briefly summarise the thoughts of the students or to discuss some of the shared thoughts with the group.