Tuesday 3rd July 2012 - Learning students' names

I was at a celebration event in a university department earlier today.  One of those present was a woman I taught in my final year option class a few years ago who is now on the staff.  Something which she explained to her colleagues about me was that she remembered how, by the second week of the class, I had learned everyone's names. I think there were probably about 25 in the class in her year.  She implied that others who had taught her had not placed a name against her.  This set me thinking about the learning of students' names.

At the Students' Union academic awards last month I was a little taken aback by the citation for one short-listed tutor where his main claim to fame seemed to be that he had learned the names of his personal tutees.  I would have thought that would be the norm rather than the exception.

I don't find learning names that easy, but it seems to me that it's a very important part of recognising students' (and colleagues') individual identities.  For the first week or two of my third year classes I pour over the photo mugshots of the students (unfortunately by then over two years old and therefore in some cases unrecognisable). I generally print them out from the student record specifically for my group and in the first week or two it can be a bit of a game for us all with me going round the class trying to match today's face and name with the face of the 18 year old on the sheet.  My final year option normally has between 25 and 35 in it and by the third week I'm generally pretty sure I've got them all worked out - five years ago when over 70 students opted for my class it wasn't until after half-way through the semester that I had confidence in addressing students by name.

Two tips given me some time ago always stand me in good stead.  Try to remember not just the name but also something about the individual. Perhaps it's because I'm a geographer that I normally attach the place a student is from to the name and face. The second tip was given me by our previous Vice-Chancellor: when you are meeting someone for the first time and are told their name, repeat it back to them - "I'm Trisha", "Hello Trisha".  It's simple, but it does help.

But then perhaps I'm being very old-fashioned in my belief that academic staff ought to know the names of the students they interact with in seminars (I'd exclude the big lecture classes from this!). On the other hand, I was brought up short recently by an ex-student (from another department and faculty) who, when introduced to me, said "Don't you remember me?"  It transpired that I had conferred her degree (in a ceremony with about 300 others crossing the stage) and because I had welcomed her by name (secret - there is script in the presiding officer's lap!) she thought I might still know it.  

But we can all make mistakes.  I was mortified one evening last week when I said good-bye to a colleague at the end of a formal dinner and gave her the name of her head of department instead of her own.