Check-ins
Overview
Beginning meetings with check-ins and maximizing opportunities for informal check-ins, whether live or online, can foster a sense of Belonging while building Social Supports. Check-ins that begin with questions can help teams feel connected, learn about one another, and embrace multiple perspectives.
Use It In Your Learning Environment
Each adult learner will have a unique work and life approach leading to variation in the amount and depth of preferred check-ins. It is important to first get to know each unique employee or learner. Check-ins are an opportunity to learn more about one another, so it is important to be open-minded, check biases at the door, encourage authenticity, and assume positive intent.
Across ethnicities and generations, check-ins have been identified as more impactful in fostering a sense of Belonging than feedback, event invitations, and public recognition. Check-ins can occur at the beginning of team meetings or 1:1. Beginning meetings with check-in questions can foster engagement and Belonging while supporting alignment across the team and connectedness essential to high quality team effectiveness.
Look for small opportunities to show you care, value, and understand each adult. Be present, curious, and authentic at all times to build trust.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Cooperative Learning Strategies
Adult learners can self-organize into groups called communities of practice to engage in longer-term examination of a topic to build deeper understanding.
Flexible grouping is a classroom practice that temporarily places learners' together in given groups to work together, with the purpose of achieving a given learning goal or activity.
Giving learners the opportunity to share their knowledge, skills, and understanding with others strengthens learning and increases Motivation while also building Social Supports.
Learning in social contexts has been shown to have significant effects on comprehension of material and retention of new information into Long-term Memory.
Bringing learners' everyday literacy practices such as text chats into instruction provides regular, low-stakes practice communicating with authentic audiences.
