How to Teach Like a Pro

Is it just me or do college students seem to lack respect for their professors today? Have students become more demanding, less responsible, and deficient in plain old common courtesy? What ever happened to civility in the classroom? Interestingly enough, Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers, addressed this potential problem as far back as 1995. (1) He stated that kids misbehave in public schools because the students have been “taught” that this is acceptable at an early age. A six-year- old child is disruptive and the other children look around to see what will happen. The kids are convinced that if a lightening bolt does not come down from the sky, that at the very least the student will be sent to the principal’s office. But, as Shanker says, many times nothing happens. There is no punishment. The rest of the students realize that the teacher is not the leader of the class…the six-year-old kid is.

Fast forward twelve years and these same students are now in college. My first introduction to this problem of classroom management occurred a few years ago when I experienced the “Class from Hell.” At the time I had been teaching for over 20 years and was just dumbfounded by the behavior of the students in this class. They came to class late, their cell phones rang during the lecture, and they left in the middle of class to go to the restroom. One student even fell asleep during every class period. I got to the point where I hated to go into that classroom. I found myself obsessing over my lack of control, getting angrier and angrier with those “stupid, bad, disrespectful students.” I whined to my colleagues and seriously thought about leaving teaching for something, anything else... I finally decided I had to do something for my own sanity, if not my career.

I told my botany class that I would not tolerate cell phones ringing and disturbing the final, and a student asked, “Why do you have to be so stupid?”

---Jennith Maclean Thomas

Louisburg College

I decided to return to a “zero tolerance” policy for disruptive behavior. I went back into my “Class from Hell” at mid-term and laid down some new ground rules. First I apologized. I explained that I had not been a good manager of the classroom. I had not established and communicated my expectations to them. I had no right to be angry when they did not do what I wanted. So I told the students…here are the rules for the rest of the semester.

I have to admit that even I, a tenured full professor, hesitated before laying down the law with that class. After all, those all-important teaching evaluations are used in making my pay raise decisions too. However, as I found out by talking to friends and colleagues at other universities, we are all struggling with the same issues. While most of us are comfortable with the content of what we are teaching, many of us do not believe that our doctorate-granting institutions have prepared us in the “how-to’s” of managing our classrooms. Even those of us who have been teaching for a while may not think that we really know how to handle disruptive behaviors from our students. In fact, we believe we shouldn’t have to; after all, shouldn’t college students know how to conduct themselves in a classroom?

An associate anthropology professor at the University of Nebraska had two students start making out in her classroom during her lecture one day. She had to ask them to leave. (2)

---Jenna Johnson

Daily Nebraskan

Why are we having so much trouble with our students? Part of this is probably our own fault as instructors. Many of my colleagues “dress down” to go to class and have the students call them by their first name as a way to relate. We want our students to like us. In addition, universities are putting an emphasis on the student as customer and giving teaching evaluations a great deal of weight in determining renewals of contracts. Thus, my colleagues tell me they are afraid to say no when asked to allow late papers, give extra credit, or make up tests. They feel they have lost control of their own classrooms.

A colleague of mine was having a lot of trouble with her students. She asked me to sit in on one of her classes and give her some feedback. I was in the back of the room the next day when she came in and started to lecture. One of her students piped up and announced that class didn’t start for another two minutes, and my colleague stopped and waited. Even the students knew that she had lost control of that class.

---Dr. Kirk

Learning to manage your classroom is a craft that can be learned and improved upon like any other skill. This book presents suggestions based on my own experiences, those of colleagues at other universities, and ideas from participants in my workshops on classroom management. You are not alone. We all want to do a better job of teaching in an environment conducive to learning.

And what about the class that inspired this book? Did the students “ding” me on evaluations at the end of that semester? No. In fact, they seemed appreciative that I had established some guidelines and enforced these fairly. Perhaps in the long run they find this new informality in the classroom uncomfortable as well.

I had the temerity to suggest to my Dean that it might be useful for our faculty to develop strategies for classroom management. As a fresh-faced, untenured assistant professor who had no training in teaching prior to entering academe, I had been subjected to various forms of rude behavior and disrespect by students. Many of these students apparently felt no compunction about acting out in class, as I assume they probably did in high school. My Dean instantly dismissed my recommendation and suggested I just hunker down and get with the program! “It is your class – manage it!” I reached my breaking point in 2004 when a student had the audacity to take a cell phone call during my lecture. I completely retooled my syllabi to include my expectations of the students, setting clear boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. I also articulate expectations of myself – that is, what students should expect from me including maintaining generous office hours, treating them with dignity and respect, and responding promptly to email and telephone inquiries. More importantly, I use the entire first class lecture to go through the fine details of the syllabus. Setting clear expectations has resulted in a more productive and engaging classroom environment and has helped defuse potential crisis situations. Just as parents model behavior for their children, so do we, as professors, have to model behavior for our students.

---James Montgomery

DePaul University

(1) Shanker, Albert, “Classrooms held hostage,” American Educator, vol 19(1), 1995.

(2) Johnson, Jenna, “Drake professor addresses classroom behavior in new book,” Daily Nebraskan, September 24, 2004.