How to model good academic practice

Many undergraduate students enter higher education without the academic skills necessary to complete their degrees. They will need guidance and instruction on the most effective and efficient ways to reference, revise and manage their time. This may also be the case for postgraduate students who need to refresh these skills, particularly after taking a break from education to pursue careers or family life.

Sessions on how to reference and research skills seminars run by library staff at my undergraduate institution made my transition to university so much easier. Later in my academic career, I learned student-centred practices to support the above, and incorporate them into my teaching in the following ways.

Introduce or reinforce best academic practice

Acknowledge the sources of your teaching resources: this involves referencing academic articles you discuss in class, according to the citation style of your discipline. Also, consider arranging introductions or refresher sessions on referencing with your university library to help students complete their assignments and dissertations. 

Share course materials promptly: post all synchronous session materials where students can find them as soon as possible after class. Remind them to review these within the following 24 hours to aid retention. 

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Make your lecture slides accessible and relatable: accessibility tips include making sure slides are screen reader-friendly and adding alt-text (descriptive text for images). Enable closed captioning for videos and describe figures verbally in class. 

Before delivering your lecture, warn students of possible technical difficulties: this ensures students aren’t caught off guard, and also demonstrates that they can do the same in the future to ease their nerves during oral presentations. 

Discuss study skills, such as:

• Spacing out studying over the days leading up to an exam, such as planning backwards from the dates of exams to determine when to start studying before dividing each day into six four-hour chunks. Using three of the six chunks to study, in between other activities (such as rest and hobbies) for the remaining blocks of time.
• Interleaving, which entails mixing up study content between topics each day to avoid boredom and focusing too much on a limited set of topics.
• Retrieval practice testing: for an hour of study, do 25 minutes of revision, then 35 minutes of retrieval (for example, with flash cards).
• Making connections within and between topic areas, through techniques such as personalisation, for example, by using guided notes; elaboration, by doing a brain dump on knowledge; and concept association, where you compare and contrast concepts.
• Teaching others in small groups or to the whole class.
• Advising students to read in a quiet place where there are no distractions. 

Introduce student-centred practices

Show students you care: enquire about and share pronouns in orientation sessions or during your first class to foster trust and respect. Create and share an “at risk” student communication sheet (for students who may have learning difficulties or are care-leavers, for example) on your learning management system to allow students to complete, should they anticipate or experience problems during their learning. This facilitates proactive and efficient communication, as well as proper academic progress record-keeping.

Discuss self-care in class: for example, you can ask students what they are doing for fun this week or over the weekend. This especially works if you are willing to share your plans (within reason). 

Incorporate restorative breaks and meditations to promote in-class wellness: two common strategies are the 20-20-20 Exercise (look at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes) and the four-minute pause (done every 20–30 minutes). Consider asking a volunteer to initiate and time these breaks. To ease student nerves before taking tests, you can lead a short meditation practice at the start of class.

Model Zoom best practices: for hybrid or online courses, tell students that you will use only live, non-recorded sessions for discussion of politically charged or sensitive topics. For regular classes, start recording after your check-in and housekeeping online etiquette reminders.

Demonstrate and encourage appropriate time management: post a communication and availability plan and a time management worksheet for each of your courses. These documents should outline your boundaries regarding availability and communication. For instance, I tell my students they can expect a response to their emails within two business days and that I am not available on Sundays. 

Additionally, I advise full-time students to treat their studies like a job with 40-hour weeks, and to ringfence time off for rest accordingly. I advise part-time students to see their weeks as 20-hour work weeks. Offer approximations of time that students should spend on each task to help them  plan their days. Finally, integrate deadlines within the calendar of your learning management system to give students visual reminders before they need to submit their work. 

By modelling the best practices and behaviours you wish to see in students, you ensure that you set them up for both academic and personal success.

No GenAI tools were used to write this article.

Natalie K.D. Seedan is a sports sciences laboratory technician and part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus.

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