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Welcome to a tutorial that focuses on a 'hot' topic on college campuses. Classroom incivility is any action that interferes with a harmonious and cooperative learning atmosphere in the classroom. Uncivil student behavior not only disrupts and negatively effects the overall learning environment for students but also contributes to instructors' stress and discontent. Consider the following: Dr. Nicole Adams' introduction to college teaching is proving to be more of a nightmare than a dream. Her classes at Higher State University are filled with latecomers, sleepers, cell phone addicts, and downright hostile and disruptive students. To top it all, she's asked to recruit a reluctant student who demands to know why he should be in college at all.
The previous scenario might sound familiar to some college instructors. In faculty lounges the conversations often turn to questions and comments about the perceived increase in 'incivility' in classrooms. This behavior can be seen between students and/or between faculty and students. In a weekend seminar opportunity on April 21, 2006, Thomas B. Jones, author of The Missing Professor–An Academic Mystery, provided case study discussions to provide participants with active learning experiences on two every-day and important teaching challenges: classroom incivility and making sense of college. In an interview, Jones was asked: "What’s the most difficult experience you’ve faced in teaching undergraduate students?" He answered: "In the twilight of my teaching career, I taught the introductory U.S. history survey at a community college. For the first time, I encountered what we now call “classroom incivility.” I achieved legendary status among my colleagues for my inexperience handling a particularly difficult student. To my surprise, the problems I experienced (and subsequently learned how to deal with in a useful and progressive way) are not confined to one level of higher education. It’s lucky we have several good souls in faculty development researching and writing about the issue and providing strategies to employ in the classroom." The Missing Professor addresses topics other than 'civility', too, using case studies to facilitate discussion. Thomas B. Jones has over thirty-five years of experience in higher education as a professor of history, faculty developer, academic administrator, and educational consultant. He graduated from the University of Minnesota (1964) with a B.A. in history and received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for graduate study at Cornell University (Ph.D. , 1968). A former professor of U. S. history, he has taught on both the graduate and undergraduate levels at Northern Illinois University, Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Rockhurst University, and the Metropolitan Community Colleges of Kansas City. He was the founding director of the Rockhurst University's Center for Teaching Excellence. In addition to The Missing Professor, he is co-author with Chet Meyers of Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for the College Classroom (1993). His writing also includes several articles on U.S. history, liberal education, and college teaching. He is presently at work on a sequel to The Missing Professor and two historical mystery novels. In addition to information from the weekend seminar additional resources on the topic of 'civility', with reflections, suggestions, and comments from other sources are included in this tutorial. In the first discussion in the weekend seminar, Tom Jones talked about noticing examples of classroom incivility especially over the last three years. He asked the participants to share some things they had seen in classrooms, how they felt about the what happened, and what they did about it. He then asked them to individually create a list of nouns and adjectives that could be linked to examples of incivility that they had experienced. The participants were then to choose, in a small group, one noun and two adjectives that represent an uncivil classroom event and create a metaphor. View the video to see the results and listen to the discussion. (50 minutes) Why incivility occurs The causes of classroom incivility include the "consumer mentality of students," administrative and faculty fears of losing student enrollments, the legislative reach into classrooms, anti-intellectualism and attacks on academics by the media gurus, irrational student expectations of success in college, inaccurate assessment of students' knowledge base, "helicopter" parents, more students with psychological problems, and a host of other starting points. All combine to make classroom incivility a significant and difficult fact of life for college teachers and students. Many faculty feel incidents of student incivility are increasing. Many theories have been advanced for this perceived 'trend'. Some cite the anonymity of large classes and large universities, which may lead to students not viewing their professors and classmates as “real people.” Others cite the different expectations of so-called millennial students. Millenials have more of a tendency to see themselves as consumers of education; at the same time, many feel under enormous pressure to succeed. This may make them more demanding than previous generations of students. And millennial students really do multi-task, so they probably see reading email during class as an efficient use of time. Nevertheless, it is reasonable for you to expect students to behave in a civil manner towards you as well as towards their classmates. You will have to decide which behaviors you can tolerate or adapt to, and which are unacceptable in your class. Constant disruptions prevent others from receiving an education, interfere with your ability to carry out your instructional responsibilities, and create a negative work environment for you. Robert Boice, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and others emphasize the importance of the first class session in preventing classroom incivility.
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