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In order to thrive in competitive higher education (HE) environments, O’Connor and Mottershaw (2025) suggest: ‘People must feel able to show up authentically in academia.’ In their ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog post they provide a series of suggestions that set the scene for solidarity and collegiality. In this blog post, Sarah and I draw upon our lived experiences to encourage and equip others in education to ‘show up authentically’. For us, we use setting the scene strategies to offer purposeful and nourishing means of connection. We invite you to make a brew and settle in for some thoughtful sustenance in our offering.

Setting the scene is a well-established technique in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Sarah first encountered it during her TEFL training, where she taught a mock lesson in Spanish to English-speaking peers. Sitting at a pretend café table, she and her partner acted out a coffee shop scenario. The students, though unfamiliar with Spanish, quickly grasped the context and began ordering their drinks with enthusiasm. This playful, immersive approach made the learning memorable and enjoyable, it helped them enter into the space.

While such methods are common in TEFL, they are often absent in HE, where the emphasis shifts to performance and assessment (Whitton & Langan, 2019). Playful approaches, such as scene-setting activities or starters, can sometimes be viewed as frivolous or inappropriate, a casualty of the ‘tyranny of numbers’ imposed by neoliberal education policies (Ball, 2015). Yet, research suggests that enjoyment can enhance learning outcomes (Beekes, 2006); but more than that, it helps to connect the personal to the pedagogical. As we become more aware of students taking degree courses without understanding the relevance to their career ambitions (Dickinson, 2023), making the connections between content and context becomes really important.

Drawing on her TEFL experience, Sarah designed a cross-discipline critical thinking session that could be used for undergraduate or postgraduate students. It began with a simple question: tea or coffee? The room buzzed with debate as students defended their preferences. This low-stakes discussion, grounded in a universally relatable topic, encouraged students to articulate their reasoning – an essential component of critical thinking. As Paolini (2015) notes, engaging students early with familiar, enjoyable content can increase participation and deepen learning. It also helps students to tap into their personal, authentic selves foregrounding and strengthening the learning that happens by building connections to existing mental frameworks (Anderson, 2000). By invoking everyday experiences, educators can activate prior knowledge and create cognitive hooks for new concepts. In our case, the tea vs coffee debate served as a scaffold for exploring argumentation, evidence and perspective-taking – core elements of critical thinking.

‘By invoking everyday experiences, educators can activate prior knowledge and create cognitive hooks for new concepts.’

Imagine yourself in a cozy café, choosing between a comforting tea and a bracing espresso. Your choice depends on your needs in that moment – warmth and ease, or focus and intensity. Setting the scene in HE is not about gimmicks or entertainment for its own sake. It’s about creating conditions that support cognitive engagement and emotional readiness. Educational strategies should be context sensitive. Sometimes, students need the warmth of a game or a debate to ease into learning. Other times, they require the rigour of academic texts and structured analysis. By integrating familiar, enjoyable elements into our sessions, we can foster a more inclusive and effective learning experience that tackles imposterism (O’Conner & Mottershaw, 2025). Just as a morning beverage prepares us for the day, a well-set scene can prepare students for meaningful academic connection and exploration.

References

Anderson, J. R. (2005). Cognitive psychology and its implications (5th ed.) Macmillan.

Ball, S. (2015). Education, governance and the tyranny of numbers. Journal of Education Policy, 30(3), 299–301. Ìý

Beekes, W. (2006). The ‘millionaire’ method for encouraging participation. Active Learning in Higher Education, 7(1), 25–36.

Brandt, C. (2006). Success on your certificate course in English Language teaching: A guide to becoming a teacher in ELT/TESOL. SAGE.

Dickinson, J. (2023, August 13). Are students dropping out because universities admitted them to courses they can’t do? Wonkhe.

O’Connor, R., & Mottershaw, S. (2025, October 8). Disempowering imposterism in higher education. ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog. /blog/disempowering-imposterism-in-higher-education

Paolini, A. (2015). Enhancing teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes. Journal of Effective Teaching, 15(1), 20–33.

Whitton, N., & Langan, M. (2019). Fun and games in higher education: An analysis of UK student perspectives. Teaching in Higher Education, 24(8), 1000–1013.