Incivilities in the College Classroom: The Effects of Teaching Style and Teacher Gender

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher gender, teaching style, and classroom incivilities in composition and business writing courses at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Incivility frequencies were collected from approximately 581 students and twenty-four teachers using surveys. While it cannot be stated that teacher gender combined with teaching style causes more incivilities, this study revealed a correlation between the frequency of incivilities and teacher gender controlled for teaching style. Students of female teachers who use student-centered pedagogical methods report more incivility occurrences than students of male teachers who use student-centered pedagogical methods. Findings also revealed that no correlation exists between incivilities and teacher gender alone or teaching style alone, and incivility frequency is no different in composition courses than in business writing courses. Recommendations for coping with incivilities are provided as well as recommendations for future research

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation adds to the literature on campus climate in higher education in the United States, by 1) focusing on international students, especially those from China and Saudi Arabia, and their perceptions of the classroom climate as the racialized Other, in particular, their feelings of being welcomed or not welcomed; and 2) examining their perceptions of, and reactions to, pedagogical practices and peer behaviors that marginalized and/or included them. The mixed-methods study was conducted at three predominantly White institutions in the Intermountain West, utilizing the theoretical framework of campus climate and the White racial frame. Qualitative and quantitative data found the international students to be somewhat ambivalent in their perceptions of the campus climate, reporting that it was both welcoming and unwelcoming. Perceptions of the classroom climate were found to be associated with those of the campus climate, with the role of the professor as essential to their fee

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationOnline learning continues to become more prevalent in higher education. Despite extensive research of interpersonal constructs in face-to-face (F2F) instructional environments (e.g., immediacy, expectations, clarity), research has yet to explore factors such as student incivilities, instructor misbehaviors, and conflict in online courses as separate and unique from the F2F context. Based on student and instructor responses to open-ended online survey questions, this study explicated the various student incivilities and instructor misbehaviors that occur in online courses and considered what incivility/misbehavior categories tend to precipitate conflict in online courses. The findings suggest that there is a difference between F2F and online learning environments, which warrants sustained research that considers the F2F and online instructional settings independently

Stop the Madness! College Faculty and Student Perceptions of Classroom Incivility

Classroom incivility is causing major concern, nation-wide, to college administrators, faculty, and students. The damage caused by student incivility has been associated with a decrease in student learning, the deterioration of the classroom learning environment, lower faculty morale, and reduced student retention rates. The purpose of this quantitative non-experimental fixed research design was to explore and compare college faculty and student perceptions of type and frequency of classroom incivilities at a private college in order to provide a foundation for the development of strategies to reduce uncivil behaviors and increase student success. Study results demonstrated that faculty members and students, at the target institution, agreed on the types of uncivil behaviors yet disagreed on the frequency of the behaviors in the classroom. These sets of observations presented two entirely different pictures of the classroom environment. The results of the present study have important implications for creating faculty workshops and opportunities for professional development focused on curbing classroom incivilities and increasing student success

University Education in a Postmodern Era: Building a Narrative Ethic of Civil Communication in the Classroom

This project responds to the question: How can educators quell communicative classroom incivilities (CI) that are currently harming teaching and learning? Sources of CI in a postmodern United States university classroom involve: student entitlement, lack of institutional support for a growing contingent faculty, and incongruent values about appropriate classroom communication. Unlike preceding historical time periods that maintained a shared communicative ethic stemming from antiquity to modernity, postmodernity presents an unprecedented challenge to teaching and learning where there can be no assumed shared ethic of appropriate communicative classroom communication. Postmodernity as an age of coexisting and contentious narratives, this project argues for professors to proactively and appropriately establish an ethic of communicative civility within their classroom. \u3c\u3c\u3

Practicing Civility in the Legal Writing Course: Helping Law Students Learn Professionalism

This Article suggests some concrete ways to teach civility— one component of professionalism—to law students. Professionalism certainly includes much more than civility, incorporating the concepts of ethics, morals, public service, life-long learning, personal integrity, professional identity, and a commitment to selfdevelopment. This Article begins with a brief overview of civility in Part I. Part II provides a few of the many arguments for why we should teach law students to be civil. Part III explores some concrete ways in which we can teach civility within individual classes, using the dynamics of student engagement in the classroom as an opportunity to identify goals, practice, and receive feedback

Exploring the Infringing Behaviours of Students inside a University Classroom:

  The infringing behaviour of students is defined as a set of undesired and objectionable behaviour that hampers the flow of teaching-learning activities inside the classroom. The student's problematic behaviour is something related to the student's disposition and temperament. This research intends to investigate how university teachers perceive student’s misbehaviour and throws light on the underlying causes behind these undesired behavioural traits. This research is based on a descriptive survey. In this research, 50 teachers teaching undergraduate students in various departments of King Khalid University have participated. The authors have collected the data manually by filling two sets of a questionnaire. The result of the study shows: what are some common inappropriate behaviour that a teacher encounters, and why a student displays various types of misbehaviours? The findings of this study will help to develop the establishment of a well-managed classroom

Incivility in Pre-Registration Nursing Education: a Phenomenological Exploration of the Experiences of Student Nurses, Nurse Tutors and Nurse Mentors in a UK Higher Education Institution

This study provides a unique insight into incivility in pre-registration nursing education through a phenomenological exploration of the experiences of student nurses, nurse tutors and nurse mentors. Incivility is the display of intimidating, rude, disruptive or undesirable behaviours which, in the context of nursing education and practice, has the potential to impact negatively on student learning and patient outcomes. However, despite the potential consequences and the fact that it is a globally recognised phenomenon, very little is known about incivility in nursing education in the United Kingdom. A phenomenological qualitative design was used to explore the experiences of students, mentors and nurse tutors who were assessing, teaching or studying, on a three-year degree level pre-registration nursing programme. Data was collected by conducting twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews which were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and the framework for analysis was informed by the work of J. A. Smith, Flowers, & Larkin (2009) and Miles, Huberman, & Saldana (2014). Overall, four major themes emerged (Distraction; Power; Impact on Learning; and Invisibility) along with five minor themes (Emotional Impact, Knowing and Not-knowing; Verbal and Non-verbal Incivilities; Lack of Interest; and Lack of Respect). There were also minor themes specific to the individual participant groups such as Being Nameless (students) and Lateness (mentors). The findings demonstrate the links between incivility, learning and emotion, and bring to the fore previously unseen dimensions such as Invisibility and Knowing and Not-knowing. They also identify a wide range of potential contributory factors. Of particular importance is the explication of learning impact as this aspect has hitherto been little explored and yet is of great significance to student learning outcomes and therefore ultimately, to patient care. Consequently, the recommendations have policy and resource implications for the providers of nurse education. The research was conducted in a higher education institution in the south east of England where the researcher, a registered nurse teacher, works in an academic leadership role. It appears to be the first phenomenological exploration of incivility in the context of nursing education in the UK, and as such it provides a rich and contextualised exploration that others working in similar settings can learn from. It also adds a UK perspective to a phenomenon that is reported by nurse educators around the world, and so makes an original knowledge contribution to the global nursing community

Perceptions of Discipline Policy, Practices, and Student Incivilities Related to Senge\u27s Five Disciplines

High occurrences of student incivilities are a growing concern in the K-12 education system. This problem may be directly impacted by systems thinking and inconsistent school policy enforcement. At a local high school, this problem affected student learning outcomes and teacher-student interpersonal relationships. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and administrators regarding consistency in discipline policies and practices, as well as student incivilities as they related to Senge\u27s 5 disciplines. The conceptual framework for this study was Senge\u27s 5 disciplines of organizational learning: systems thinking, mental models, team learning, shared vision, and personal mastery. Using a case study design and responsive interviews, data from discipline procedure documents and data on student incivilities were collected from 9 teachers in Grades 9-12, as well as 2 administrators. The data were analyzed using Hatch\u27s interpretive method. Findings indicated discipline policies and practices were ineffective and inconsistent, due to poor systemic communication structures and lack of classroom management. A recommendation was made to implement systemic classroom management policies and Positive Behavior Intervention and Support trainings. Positive social change occurs when administrators and teachers implement the systemic policies and trainings identified in this study in order to motivate students to change their patterns of incivility and, as a result, focus on learning