The Classroom Behaviour

Ms. Mariyam Ahmed

mariyam.ahmed@kalingauniversity.ac.in

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Commerce & Management

Kalinga University, Naya Raipur, C.G

When it comes to teacher-student interaction in a classroom, we need to keep certain points and factors in our mind for the classroom to be interactive, informative, and intersecting. Classroom behaviour is the major role that reflects a teacher’s personality and students’ perceptions.

Though at times it is tiring and time-consuming what are we for if not any students?

We know that there are certain thoughtless behaviour, immaturity, and rudeness that causes incivilities inside a classroom, some of which are as follows:

• Unnecessary laptop or cell phone usage
• Latecomers or early leavers
• Gossip or side conversation
• Distracting other students or teachers in the class
• Mocking and making an unnecessary comment in the class.

The reasons behind such disturbed behaviour are categorised into mainly two types:

• Contingent or Personality
• Structured of the course

1. Contingent Or Personality Behavior:

These are the characteristics that show the personality of a student that are being shaped due to certain backgrounds such as family problems, mental health, adjustment issues, developmental issues, or general academic difficulties. Any teacher in the class can distinguish the need of the students for such behavior and can certainly provide them solution related to the problems like counselling, mentoring, and guiding.

Often, we have seen cultural issues in the classroom wherein different students from the different background sit and share the same platform to learn, in such a situation we sometimes witness that things might go out of our hands if the environment is hostile and not suitable for the learners, because behaviour problems increase the stress level for both the teacher and the student, resulting in the disrupting of the flow of lessons and conflict with both learning objectives and in the process of learning.  

The culture within INDIAN classrooms is diverse, and expectations for behavior can vary greatly, however, they are all rooted in the same fundamental academic values. Students from different cultural backgrounds who do not share these values may not comprehend the implicit standards for behavior in the classroom.

2. Structure of the course:

Some of the uncivilized behaviour we witness from the students is due to the course structure which the instructor design to deliver in the classroom. Boice (1998) researched classroom incivilities across a range of courses and reported several findings.

• There is a discrepancy between professors and students regarding what constitutes uncivil behavior, excluding extreme cases. Furthermore, there is significant variation in opinions among both professors and students.

• The age or teaching experience of instructors does not have a significant impact on the level of incivility they face, as both young or novice instructors and older or experienced ones experience similar levels of incivility.

Certain points we can keep in mind to make the classroom interactive and interesting such as

• Nonverbal Communication in the form of body language can depicts a sense of positivity and confidence in the classroom.
• Appreciating students for their cooperation in the class and delivering the timely assignments impacts students’ morale and they feel recognised.
• The way we address our students in the classroom impacts their behaviour in the way they respond, therefore creating a secular non judgemental environment is also important for the better behaviour in the classroom.

Having said that it is also important to keep in mind that every class is different and every student is different, and handling them plays a crucial role for any teacher, instead of being reactive, responsive is the major role which has always work and proven right. Keeping the mind calm and staying positive will help in the true depiction of patience and generosity thus shaping the classroom behaviour.