Handbook Table of Contents > Creating a Positive Environment > Civility
Indiana University Teaching Handbook
Creating a Positive Environment
Civility
Affective Concerns of Teaching
Students who feel comfortable in a classroom and who have some positive rapport with the teacher are likely to speed up learning processes as the semester goes on. In one Indiana University study, students reported that one important condition of their achievement in class is that they feel their instructor “cares about them.” In the long run, you will accomplish more learning by spending some time, especially in the first few classes, on creating a supportive environment.
Learn Student Names
This may seem like a simple suggestion, but it has profound results. All of us respond to being approached individually and personally, and the logical way to begin that process is calling us by our names. The immediate problem is how to learn the names of 100 or more students each semester. Campus Instructional Consulting has a list of many techniques to help you learn students’ names; copies are available in the Teaching Resources Center in Ballantine Hall 132.
You can gather biographical information on students by asking them to fill out index cards or to complete a short survey at the beginning of the semester. This information can be valuable in helping you to assess “where your students are” in terms of their academic backgrounds, and may also alert you to opportunities where course material can be made more meaningful by integrating it into students’ personal experiences. The more you know about your students, the easier it is to remember their names.
Provide Nonverbal Encouragement
Provide a secure, reassuring, positive atmosphere. Several ways of encouraging such an environment do not involve the spoken word. Maintain eye contact with students. Move around the room. Be animated and expressive in your presentation. Control nervous mannerisms. Students interpret fiddling with a tie or with a lock of hair to mean that you are not self-confident. This can be particularly unnerving to students. Students react most positively to teachers who seem to be firmly in control of the situation.
Avoid Judging Students
Without realizing it, teachers can exhibit judgmental behaviors that discourage students by making them feel even more inadequate than they already may feel. Do not judge students on the basis of appearance or dress. Do not allow yourself to be turned off by a student who is unkempt or who is wearing nontraditional clothing. You should also avoid gender stereotyping. Ask yourself if you unconsciously assume that females have a certain set of interests and males have another. Age stereotyping is another judgment trap. Do you unknowingly expect certain behaviors from people in certain age groups? For example, do you assume that older students are automatically more self-assured or serious about their work than are 18-year-olds?
Even though you may believe you are not prejudiced, racial or ethnic considerations can cause you to react subconsciously in ways that students find disturbing. Do you expect different attendance patterns from certain groups of students? Do you find yourself avoiding certain subjects in the classroom because you fear offending somebody? Do you tend to target your examples towards certain groups in your class? Do you assume that students have certain expertise based on racial or ethnic characteristics? Becoming aware of this type of judgmental behavior can help you avoid it.
Personalize Relationships
For some students, this is unnecessary, but other students find an “unapproachable” instructor difficult to learn from and intimidating. This strategy requires some effort and energy on the part of the teacher. Learning how many children a student has, what his or her personal interests and hobbies are, or what kinds of books he or she likes to read can help you establish fairly quickly a warm relationship with that student. Whatever your discipline, you should try to find ways to bring out students’ personal interests.
If you expect students to share with you, it is important for you to be willing to share parts of yourself and of your personal life with your students. You can accomplish this in easy ways. In classroom presentation, you can speak occasionally from personal experience. This will encourage students to respond to you not only as an authority figure, but as a person. However, use discretion with this technique; no one wants to spend a semester listening to an instructor telling his or her life story.
Respect Students as Adults
Sometimes teachers unwittingly put down their students by treating them as children, by overlooking them, or by exhibiting impersonal kinds of behavior. We often hear instructors refer to their students as “my kids.” This is especially upsetting to younger students who are just establishing themselves as adults. Another way of showing your students that you think they are important is spending time with them informally. This could be in the cafeteria or in your office. Before and after class you can chat informally with groups. When you meet a student in the hall or on the campus, smiling and giving a personal greeting is very effective. Call the student by name; it makes a great deal of difference. This again shows students that you care.
