In an effort to be fair to all parties involved, this final installment in our three part series on “Disruptive Behaviors in the Classroom” reveals how faculty disrupt the classroom from the students’ perspective. Consider the following. When faculty were asked to generate a list of disruptive student behaviors, the final tally resulted in 22 specific behaviors. In contrast, when students were asked to provide their own list of disruptive student behaviors, 18 behaviors were noted (10 of which were not included in the faculty list of behaviors). However, when students were asked to comment on the disruptive behaviors of faculty, 47 unique behaviors (*Okay, it’s not 50…but close enough!) were quickly provided!! Food for thought…enjoy…and remember, don’t shoot the messenger!
Disruptive Faculty Behaviors:
(listed in order of frequency of mention)
- Does not know how to use technology in the classroom/ technology does not work (12)
- Speech/Communication Issues: accents, mumbles, too quiet, monotone, um, like, brilliant but cannot connect (11)
- Deviating from topic (11)
- Goes over class time (7)
- Consistently late (5)
- Takes class too seriously…my class is the most important (5)
- Gets lost during lecture (4)
- Not enthusiastic (3)
- Talks to only one person (teacher's pet issues) (3)
- Does not notice when class does not understand (2)
- Does not answer questions (2)
- Lectures in the direction of the slides (2)
- Teaches directly from the book (2)
- Does not respond to emails (2)
- Busywork (2)
- Fidgets (1)
- Everything is on PowerPoint (I mean every single word!) (1)
- Unreadable PowerPoint (1)
- Does not reward for attendance (1)
- Tries to be cool (1)
- Promotes personal opinion on social issues (1)
- Poor explanations (1)
- Not available during office hours (1)
- Orders new books (1)
- Assigns books we do not use (1)
- Research-oriented only faculty (1)
- Lets students deviate from class subject (1)
- Acts more like a social worker than a teacher (1)
- Too much time on one topic or repeats (1)
- Pop quizzes (1)
- Asks too many questions (1)
- Forces discussion when no one is participating (1)
- “I’m always right attitude.” (1)
- Mocking wrong answers (1)
- Condescending (1)
- No real-life examples (1)
- Ticky-tacky graders (1)
- Does not write legibly (1)
- Boring videos (1)
- Cell phone rings (1)
- Not discussing expectations of major project (1)
- Repetitive stories (1)
- Stops class for one student (1)
- Does not laugh or smile (1)
- Wanders around the room while teaching (1)
- Makes you print tons of stuff (1)
- Wears sweater vests! (1)
(The sweater vest comment was provided by a female student who proclaimed…”sweater vests really creep me out!” Can anyone say g-g-generation gap!)
For what it’s worth…this particular list was provided by approximately 30 students in an upper division marketing class. Ninety percent of these students will be graduating in May. As is the case for all business majors, at least fifty percent of their coursework is completed outside the College of Business. In other words, these folks have taken a lot of classes both inside and outside the College of Business.