The Common Ground Project

A ‘Common Ground’ post

What is it?

The Common Ground research project was a small-scale qualitative study commissioned by King’s Academy and led by Vernee Samuel and Mira Vogel. We wanted to find out whether actively including rapport-building activities in taught sessions would prove valuable for educators and students. You can read the full report here: Common Ground Project

Why is it important?

Previous studies from a range of fields including psychology, education, communication and management studies, suggested that good educator-student rapport could engender a range of positive outcomes such as improved student well-being, belonging and attainment and, furthermore, that it could be of particular significance for disadvantaged or underserved students.

What did we do?

We observed King’s educators using a range of strategies to build rapport in the classroom and then interviewed those educators about the strategies they used both within and outside the classroom. These strategies included: learning student names; using icebreakers and re-energisers; integrating group work into their teaching; planning and attending extracurricular activities; being approachable; and making time to be available to students outside taught sessions.

We also found that it was possible to observe the consequences of good rapport using student behaviours such as their verbal engagement, level of confidence and body language. After the session, students were asked to fill in a survey and a few were interviewed in small groups.

What did we find?

We found that rapport-building activities such as icebreakers, getting to know your students and group work are considered valuable and worthwhile by both educators and their students and appear to deliver a number of positive outcomes.

From an educator’s perspective, rapport-building activities produce an atmosphere of trust, give students a sense of belonging and provide a greater opportunity for marginalised students to engage. Furthermore, educators report that it gives students the trust and confidence to ‘ask stupid questions’ and take risks with their answers, both of which are seen as crucial to accessing higher level learning.

From the student perspective, rapport-building activities help them to connect with their classmates, engage with the content, feel relaxed about being wrong and to stretch themselves academically. Additionally, a good relationship with their tutor enables students to feel personally supported and means that they more likely to ask for help.

You can read the full report here: Common Ground Project