Cultivating Positive Classroom Culture

In my experience, every instructor wants a class that is attentive, studious, thoughtful, respectful and a host of other characteristics that we have likely seen more of in a movie than in our actual classroom. The expectation of these outcomes is not unrealistic, but what can often be unrealistic is the idea that it should come with very little effort on the part of the instructor. In my previous blog I discussed the importance of instilling confidence in your students, which outlined a few practices that might assist in that process. For this blog, lets look at the flip side of that coin and discuss some attitudes, habits and practices we should avoid in order to create the thriving space for teaching and learning that we desire.

• Avoid accusatory behavior. We've all had students who miss class, show up late to class or ask to turn in late assignments. This is not new. However, it is important to remember that accusing students of being lazy, being careless, being entitled or that they aren't taking their education seriously will create the type of negativity that has the ability to clutter the classroom for weeks on end. Of course the student should do a better job to stay on top of their academic career, but accusing them with our tone, our words or even our facial expressions does not create the relationships in the classroom we might desire. It is better to assume that we don't know and to ask thoughtful questions first.

• Don't allow the positive aspects of the students efforts to be cancelled out by one act that you might perceive to be negative. Its the same idea as having one bad moment in a day, not being equal to having an entire bad day. Be sure to put both their strengths and weaknesses into perspective before coming to a conclusion about who the student is and what they are capable of. We may be missing some great qualities that could contribute to the classroom culture in a very productive way. 

• Avoid taking a students' approach to your course too personal. I know how passionate most instructors are about their subject matter. Most of us have learned to eat, sleep and breathe it for the purposes of being a solid resource for students in the classroom. However, keep in mind that we are generally only experts in one subject area, while many of our students, especially undergrad students, are enrolled in 3 to 5 different courses. Many students are not even sure about what their major will be and are possibly taking our course to fulfill a requirement. This does not mean that we should match the lack luster approach some students might display, but it does mean that we should keep in mind that not all students are in love with our subject matter to the same extent that we are. And that is okay.  

• Do your best to be clear about what is expected at all times. One of the most common student complaints is that the instructor is not clear about what is expected. They turn in research papers and often get an arbitrary score with very little feedback. Or they submit a discussion board post and get points taken off for something along the lines of, "not being thoughtful enough". When students see comments like these, they have no idea what is being requested of them. Usually they just submit a longer response the next time which does not always mean their approach to the discussion was any more "thoughtful". Clarity can also wane when instructors only chime in when they feel a student is not doing something right as opposed to also chiming in when they do well.   

• Be as efficient as you want your students to be. When we expect students to be flawless we leave no room for our own inevitable human mistakes. This becomes an issue when an instructor is very hardcore about something like tardiness. The instructor may deduct points for late arrivals or unknowingly treat students who are late as if they aren't taking their education seriously. But what happens when the instructor is late? If the behavior of the instructor is allowed to be judged by a double-standard, the students might build up a bit of resentment. This also applies to things like requesting that students have no grammatical mistakes in their papers, discussions or emails. This puts the instructor under a microscope too, and since we all make mistakes, this approach often does not work for the instructor in the long-run. This doesn't mean high standards are no good, but it does mean that we should always leave room for human error. Nobody is perfect.

I hope you've enjoyed these pointers on behaviors to avoid in order to create a more positive classroom culture. If you feel something was missed, please drop it in the comments below!

Jameelah Ra'oof MIS, MS 

Coordinator of Teaching, Learning & Academic Excellence

Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE)

Texas Woman's University 

940.898.3427

Stoddard Hall - Room 305A