whatever happened to class (in class)?
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Whatever Happened to Class (In Class)?. Civility Issues in the College Classroom. Are Classrooms Less Civil?. Why is this happening? What is the cost? How can we reverse the trend?. Where do Manners Fit?. Americans and manners – not always “perfect together.” “Frontier Manners.” - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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!