Your students’ experiences of your teaching will be shaped by, among other influences, what they bring with them into the classroom. By taking into consideration the motivations, identities and experiences that students bring, you can take these into account when selecting goals and objectives, your choice of course content, approach to teaching, and your expectations of how students will learn. By considering students as unique individuals and seeking to understand their needs, interests and prior knowledge, you contribute to their learning and model the basic values of inclusion and respect for persons.

Even before considering global citizenship, you may ask yourself the following questions as you think about your students:
• What do they know already about the content?
• What are their majors or career aspirations?
• What are their motivations for participating in this program/course/activity?
• How much diversity will there be among my students? In motivations? Expectations? Identities? Prior knowledge?
• What are their expectations of the learning content?
• What are their expectations of how I will teach and how they will learn?
• What are their expectations of how their learning will be assessed (often framed as how they will be marked)?
• How likely am I to diverge from their expectations, and what effect might this have on them as learners?
• How can I best meet the needs of my students within the requirements of my department?
• What can I do to answer these questions without stereotyping or making assumptions?