Building Belonging in Your Section

Whether students feel they belong in computing shapes whether they ask questions, come back after a bad week, and stay in the major. A TA has more influence on that than it seems: in a discussion section, a lab or office hours you set the tone in a room much smaller than the lecture hall. This page is about the whole room: names, norms, who gets to talk, the examples you choose, and what to do when someone says something that pushes others out. For one-on-one replies to a student who doubts themselves, see What to Say When a Student Doubts Themselves.

Defaults that work. If you only take four things from this page:

Learn names, and use them. Name tents help you and the students.
Say early that prior experience doesn't predict who does well, and never say "you've all done this before."
Structure who talks: think time, then pairs, then call on people, and notice who never speaks.
When someone says something harmful, name it right away, and follow up privately.

Why it matters in computing

Computing has strong stereotypes about who belongs: someone who codes all day, works alone, competes, and started young. Students who don't match measure themselves against that picture and often decide they don't fit. Classroom research has also described a "defensive climate" in CS rooms, where questions get used to show off what someone already knows. Small signals matter: in one set of studies, replacing stereotyped objects in a room (a sci-fi poster, video games) raised women's interest in computer science to the level of men's. The good news is that belonging responds to what happens in the room, and short, structured activities in discussion sections have improved attendance, grades and persistence.

The first week

Learn names and how to say them, and use name tents for the first few weeks so students learn each other's too. In one large course, most students said it mattered to them that the instructor knew their name.
Ask how students want to be addressed. Sharing pronouns is welcome and always optional.
Set norms together, including what your job is and how questions work.
Say out loud that the room holds every level of experience, and that it doesn't predict who will do well.
Normalize the struggle early. Stories from students a year or two ahead about early difficulties that passed are one of the best-tested belonging activities.
Look at what your slides and space signal, and say how to ask for accommodations or flexibility.

A way to open on day one: "Before we start, here's how this room works. Everyone here starts from a different place. Some of you have coded for years and some of you started last month, and neither tells me who will do well. Questions are how we learn here, not a test of who belongs. Let's write three agreements together. Mine is: we explain, we don't show off. What would you add?"

Every session

Think, pair, then call. Give a minute to think, a minute with a partner, then call on people, who now have something to say. This is "warm calling."
Call on people in a structured way, randomly or in turn, and ask for several answers before confirming one.
Keep a quick tally of who talks. Most of us call on the same few people without noticing.
Choose examples many students can relate to, and connect problems to things that help people. Students who care about helping others feel they belong more when they see computing doing that.
Notice when an example assumes shared experience ("as anyone who plays chess knows...") and add the background.
Share your own struggles with the material, where you're comfortable.
Give groups roles, and never ask one student to speak for a group they belong to.
Ask for anonymous feedback on how the section feels, not only on what's clear.

A way to open a section after a hard assignment: "If this week's assignment confused you, you're in good company. When I took this, I got [a specific thing] wrong for weeks. Struggling here means you're working on the hard part, not that you're in the wrong place. Today we'll start with the spots most people got stuck on."

When something goes wrong

"This is easy" and other show-off moments

Turn it into teaching, and keep the floor open: "Great that it's clicking for you. For a lot of people it doesn't click the first time, and that was true for me too. Can you walk us through how you'd explain it to someone seeing it for the first time? Everyone else, take a minute with your partner on the part that feels least obvious." If it keeps happening, talk with the student privately after section.

A harmful comment

Name it right away, calmly: "Let's not talk about people that way here. I'll follow up." Silence reads as agreement.
Check in privately with the student or students affected, and let them say what would help. Don't make them do the work.
Talk with the person who said it, privately, about the effect, not only the intent.
Restate the norms to the whole group at the next session or by message.
Tell your instructor. Anything that may be harassment or discrimination goes to them and to your institution's office; see Handle It or Hand It to the Instructor?.