Whatever Happened to Class (In Class)?

Civility Issues in the College Classroom

Why is this happening?

What is the cost?

How can we reverse the trend?

Are Classrooms Less Civil?

Americans and manners – not always “perfect together.”

“Frontier Manners.”

What is artificial and what is “natural?”

Manners and etiquette seen as a way to make class distinctions (Cole)

Where do Manners Fit?

We are bothered by – Road rage

Workplace incivility

Crude language (Shortman)

Are People Less Civil?

95% feel that civility is important in politics

50% feel it has declined(Levine)

Why?

2010 National Survey …

Increased tendency to question authority

Life is more technological, less personal

More mobile/less connected, less loyal

Technological distractions

Disconnected, alienated

Society is more open, but also more crude (Perlmutter; Sypher)

Talking Chronic lateness, leaving early Texting and cell phones Inattention, lack of preparation Rudeness “Rules are made for someone else” Sense of entitlement (Boice) Bright students who take over class (Perlmutter)

What’s Happening in the Classroom?

Continuing to talk after being asked to stop Coming to class under the influence of alcohol or drugs Allowing a cell phone to ring Conversing loudly with others Nonverbally showing disrespect for others Swearing Sleeping Making disparaging remarks Arriving late and/or leaving early Text messaging Packing up books before class is over Using a palm pilot, iPod or computer for non-class activities (Bjorklund and Rehling)

Student Perceptions

Condescending remarks

Poor Teaching Style

Poor communication skills

Arrogance, superiority

Criticizing students in front of peers

Threatening to fail students (Clark and Springer)

Of Faculty as Well

Changing the syllabus

Lecturing too fast, with little student interaction

Unexpected tests and grades

Unfairness, rigidity

Insistence on conformity

Discrimination (Boice; Thomas)

Bart: [after watching a foreign film] “I was so bored I cut the pony tail off the guy in front of us.”

[holds pony tail to his head] “Look at me, I’m a grad student. I’m 30 years old and I made $600 last year.” Marge: “Bart, don’t make fun of grad students. They’ve made a terrible life choice.”

The Simpsons on proper public behavior

Students are unprepared for college; “dumbed down” education; limited exposure to academic life

Poor parenting and guidance; coarsening of culture

Students have expectations out of sync with the classroom

Preconceived ideas (age, ethnicity, gender). (Alexander-Snow; Clayton; Kilmer; Trout)

Why?

The Wal-Marting of Education!!

Are we relying too heavily on the “customer-driven” approach? (Driscoll, Sacks)

Power shift to students (Clayton)

“I paid for this” attitude (“Tips for Dealing with Troublesome Behaviors”)

“Wilkommen” “Welcome” “Bienvenue”

Happy to see you, Bliebe, reste, stay!

High levels of student incivility/low levels of student attentiveness and low teacher enthusiasm and approachability

Stressful student/faculty interactions Student dissatisfaction with the academic experience Other students have less energy for thinking and

classwork and less engagement with the course material (Hirschy and Braxton; Morrisette)

What is the Result?

Afraid to be seen as incompetent

Lack of support

Effect on students

Why Don’t We Take Care of the Problem?

Expectations, expectations, expectations!

Behavior/classroom procedures

Importance of syllabus as contract

Orientation/First-year experience, teach college culture (Clayton)

Do not make rules that are not enforced; be consistent (“Dealing with Disruptive Classroom Behavior”; Feldman; Morrisette; “Tips for Dealing with Troublesome Behaviors”)

Rapport-building techniques (Kilmer)

What Can We Do?

You are your own best advertisement

Learn how to deal with conflict

Take action immediately

Stick to class starting/ending times

Allow students to vent if needed

Approach students in private (Feldman; Reed)

Discuss the problem with students and encourage them to consider their behavior as a future member of the workplace

(Ortego)

Discuss the issue;1. What expectations do they have about college?2. What have their classroom experiences been in the past?3. Why in a student-centered environment, are rules about

behavior necessary? In today’s relaxed and democratic culture, why is civility still important?

4. How do students want to be treated by peers and teachers?5. Have students experienced classroom behavior that was

disruptive, rude or embarrassing? How did this behavior influence learning?

If the class feels comfortable role-playing, this may help get the point across in an engaging way.

Let Students Know What You Expect

“Can Tell us How to Get, Get Away from Sesame Street?”

Administrative support The issue affects all departments; address the problem

on a college wide level Procedures in place to deal with behavior problems

consistently, with consequences College wide training in dealing with student behavior

and conflict resolution Smaller classes (Alkandari; Barrett, et. al.)

What Can We Do?

“Oh, pardon me, Santos—if that is your real name, Bart Simpson—but your phony credit card is no good here. Now make like my pants, and split.” Comic Book Guy

The Simpsons on Customer Service

Suggestions? Questions?Thank you for coming!