Civility in the Classroom Part II

Civility (Part II)

Respect Students as Adults

Sometimes teachers unwittingly put down their students by treating them as children, by overlooking them, or by exhibiting impersonal kinds of behavior. We often hear instructors refer to their students as “my kids.” This is especially upsetting to younger students who are just establishing themselves as adults. Another way of showing your students that you think they are important is spending time with them informally. This could be in the cafeteria or in your office. Before and after class you can chat informally with groups. When you meet a student in the hall or on the campus, smiling and giving a personal greeting is very effective. Call the student by name; it makes a great deal of difference. This again shows students that you care.

Provide Specific Positive Reinforcement

Taking the time to compliment a student on something specific that he or she has done well can have tremendous payoffs for a teacher. The key here is specificity. Students will sense a lack of genuineness if you compliment profusely and generally, but if you can pick out one particular element of their work or one particular aspect of their attitude that you like, your comment will have much more meaning. A student who has written a paper that is not particularly effective but who has used a striking metaphor, for example, can be complimented on that use.

Make Yourself Available

Being available as often as students may need you can be difficult. However, it is important, particularly with students who may be struggling in the course.

You are serving as a role model to these students, and keeping reliable office hours gives them a sense of your commitment. Be on time. Spend as much time in the office as you have promised; if for any reason you won’t be able to be in your office on a given day, give your students advance notice. You have, in essence, made a contract with them and you should keep it.

The easiest way to be available to your students is to get to class early and stay after as possible (move out of the classroom, however, to allow the next teacher time to prepare for class). Email is also a way to increase your contact with students without investing huge amounts of your time. Set up clear guidelines about when you will be able to respond to student emails.

Make Your Class Safe for Your Students

Although you do not intend to humiliate students, you may inadvertently interact with them in ways that are embarrassing or that make them uncomfortable. Even if such embarrassment is subtle, it can discourage a student and make it difficult for him or her to come back to your class. Avoid sarcasm with students, as well as teasing could be interpreted as hurtful. Apologize immediately if you can see that your comment has been taken in a way you did not intend.

Be as Positive as Possible

Being positive is not easy when you are having a hard day, but some techniques can make you and your students feel positive. Voice quality, for instance, is extremely important. Be energetic and bright in your inflection. A monotone or a deep, tired voice will give away your lack of interest. Be willing to laugh in class, and use humor in your teaching if that comes naturally to you. Chatting with students will sometimes be therapeutic for you; if your energy level is running low, a few exchanges with students can energize you.

Read Inattentive Behaviors

We all have observed inattentive behavior in teaching situations. Some behaviors to look for are shuffling or shifting in chairs, persistent coughing by one or more students, glances at other students or watches, and stacking books when there are five minutes left in the class period. These behaviors indicate that you have lost student attention. Also notice posture, attitude, and lack of eye contact. The research on adult attention span tells us that attending to a single type of activity for more than 15-20 minutes can be difficult for many students.

When you notice that some students are drifting away, your response should be immediate and decisive. Changing the pace of the class can be most effective. We call this the “change-up.” For example, switching from lecture to small-group activity can wake up the class. Breaking the rhythm of your usual behavior can break the monotony. Using visuals or asking students to spend a few minutes writing their thoughts down to a provocative question can re-energize your group.

Plan your classes in 15- to 20-minute sections with a change of mode between each section. This will allow you to have the students’ fresh attention several times in each class, rather than just at the beginning. Changing activities can make a big difference in your students’ success.

Individual Conferences with Students

This may or may not be possible or practicial depending on the enrollment in your class. These conferences need not be long when the students do not have significant problems. They may simply be an opportunity to check in with how your students are doing in the course. This kind of conference, again, shows the student that you care. For students with significant problems, however, the conference is crucial. Sometimes you yourself can solve some of the student’s problems, or you can guide the student to someone who can help him or her. Surprisingly, many students are not familiar with the counseling services available at the university.

Telephone Students When High-Risk Patterns Develop

Examples of high-risk patterns are several missed assignments, chronic absences, and perpetual tardiness. Telephoning students can be an effective way of reaching them; students are often impressed that an instructor would take the time to call them.

How can I get Students to Come to Office Hours?

How can I get Students to Come to Office Hours?

Call Them Something Else. By calling it “study table” instead of “office hours,” and holding them in the dorm cafeteria. Identify a problem area where you know many students are struggling and announce that - “Today from 2-3pm we’ll be going over additional examples of….”

Go Someplace Else. Students who may be reluctant to come to an office will come to the student union, dorm lounge or a coffee shop.

Make Them Come. Some instructors only return tests, papers, or drafts of papers during office hours. This gives you the chance to explain their strengths and weaknesses and help them to improve. Or you might just strongly encourage them to come; pass around a sign-up sheet in class, asking students to commit to coming at a specific time. This works especially well just before an exam day or when a paper is due.

See Them in Groups. Either study tables or sign-up sheets will let you see small groups of students at the same time. This is especially important if you teach very large classes.

Tell Them How to use Office Hours. Give them a handout on how to get the most from a visit; write down specific questions in advance, bring the readings with them with passages to discuss marked, etc.

Use Email.

This can be the most convenient way to communicate with your students. If possible, announce that you will be online in the evening once in awhile. This is when students are usually doing their homework and need help. Archive responses to student questions and use this material to develop an FAQ on your website.

- Teaching Effectiveness Program

University of Oregon

Civility in the Classroom

Civility (Part I)

Affective Concerns of Teaching

Students who feel comfortable in a classroom and who have some positive rapport with the teacher are likely to speed up learning processes as the term goes on. In one Indiana University study, students reported that one important condition of their achievement in class is that they feel their instructor “cares about them.” In the long run, you will accomplish more learning by spending some time, especially in the first few classes, on creating a supportive environment.

Learn Student Names

This may seem like a simple suggestion, but it has profound results. All of us respond to being approached individually and personally, and the logical way to begin that process is calling us by our names. The immediate problem is how to learn the names of 100 or more students each term.

You can gather biographical information on students by asking them to fill out index cards or to complete a short survey at the beginning of the semester. This information can be valuable in helping you to assess “where your students are” in terms of their academic backgrounds, and may also alert you to opportunities where course material can be made more meaningful by integrating it into students’ personal experiences. The more you know about your students, the easier it is to remember their names.

Provide Nonverbal Encouragement

Provide a secure, reassuring, positive atmosphere. Several ways of encouraging such an environment do not involve the spoken word. Maintain eye contact with students. Move around the room. Be animated and expressive in your presentation. Try to identify and control nervous mannerisms (getting videotaped is an excellent way to become aware of this). Students may interpret fiddling with a tie or with a lock of hair to mean that you are not self-confident. Students react most positively to teachers who appear comfortable and confident about their role in the classroom

Avoid Judging Students

Without realizing it, teachers can exhibit judgmental behaviors that discourage students by making them feel even more inadequate than they already may feel. Do not judge students on the basis of appearance or dress. Do not allow yourself to be turned off by a student who is unkempt or who is wearing nontraditional clothing. You should also avoid gender stereotyping. Ask yourself if you unconsciously assume that females have a certain set of interests and males have another. Age stereotyping is another judgment trap. Do you unknowingly expect certain behaviors from people in certain age groups? For example, do you assume that older students are automatically more self-assured or serious about their work than are 18-year-olds?

Even though you may believe you are not prejudiced, racial or ethnic considerations can cause you to react subconsciously in ways that students find disturbing. Do you expect different attendance patterns from certain groups of students? Do you find yourself avoiding certain subjects in the classroom because you fear offending somebody? Do you tend to target your examples towards certain groups in your class? Do you assume that students have certain expertise based on racial or ethnic characteristics? Becoming aware of this type of judgmental behavior can help you avoid it.

Personalize Relationships

For some students, this is unnecessary, but other students find an “unapproachable” instructor difficult to learn from and intimidating. This strategy requires some effort and energy on the part of the teacher. Learning how many children a student has, what his or her personal interests and hobbies are, or what kinds of books he or she likes to read can help you establish fairly quickly a warm relationship with that student. Whatever your discipline, you should try to find ways to bring out students’ personal interests.

If you expect students to share with you, it is important for you to be willing to share parts of yourself and of your personal life with your students. You can accomplish this in easy ways. In classroom presentation, you can speak occasionally from personal experience. This will encourage students to respond to you not only as an authority figure, but as a person. However, make good choices about what personal information is appropriate to share with students.

- Teaching Effectiveness Program
University of Oregon