Disruptive or Uncivil Behaviors In the College Classroom.

Uncivil behavior can reduce student learning and disrupt the educational process. The objective of this project was to determine student and faculty opinions on the disruptive nature of 16 student actions in the classroom. The students and faculty were asked to rate actions into one of four categories: very disruptive, moderately disruptive, slightly disruptive, or not disruptive in the classroom. A total of 204 undergraduate students in eight classes completed the survey along with 25 faculty. The three actions most commonly listed by students as very disruptive were (1) allowing cell phone to ring during class, (2) talking to other students in the class during lecture, and (3) asking irrelevant questions and/or dominating class discussion. In faculty responses, the most frequently listed actions that were very disruptive were (1) talking to other students in the class during lecture, (2) allowing cell phones to ring during class, and (3) using vulgar language and/or gestures. Addressing student uncivil behavior and developing strategies to reduce disruptive student behavior should be addressed to facilitate learning in the college classroom.