Classroom Management

Starting off Strong

First impressions are important for setting the tone and expectations for the semester.

Considerations

• Arrive early for the first day of class and greet students as they enter. Have conversations with students as they are getting settled.  
• Introduce yourself to your class. Share your academic journey. Be sure to state the way you would like to be addressed.  
• Introduce your course. Share your enthusiasm about your field. Help students see the relevance of your course topic. 
• Consider using an ice breaker activity on the first day of class to help your students get to know each other and relax. Don’t spend the entire first class meeting going over the course syllabus. Cover the highlights but leave the detailed overview of the syllabus for another class session.  
• Start learning students’ names immediately. Anonymity discourages student engagement. Use name cards or index cards to help everyone learn each other’s names. Many students sit in the same seats for every session so consider creating a seating chart.  

Interact with students regularly. Greet them by their name as they enter the classroom. Chat with students at the start of the class to check in and gauge how they are feeling. Ask questions with plenty of wait time to get students to respond. Make eye contact with as many students as possible. Be prepared but also humble. It’s Ok to admit that you don’t have all the answers and need more time to respond.   

Looking for more Classroom Management Techniques? Review this report from The Teaching Professor called, 10 Effective Classroom Management Techniques Every Faculty Member Should Know. 

Community agreements

A Community Agreement summarizes the classroom expectations for discussion and behavior. Agreements are created collaboratively early in the semester between students and instructors to build a foundation for an inclusive classroom and set the expectations for a respectful dialogue. Setting ground rules for a class is especially important when you plan to discuss controversial or challenging topics.  

Ground rules, or norms, help keep the conversation learning-focused and empowers students to participate and hold each other (and you) accountable. If someone in the class violates the agreement, either the students or the instructor can call out this behavior and reference the agreement. The agreement should be posted in a location that is easy to reference such as a page on the course Canvas site.   

Approaches to Creating Community Agreements

For smaller courses (20 or fewer), instructors can provide students with a wide-open approach. This means you provide students with a primer – such as this primer based off the work of Claude Steele’s work “What guidelines can we agree on now in order to create a learning environment in which we can ask each other anything?” Then, have students call out their recommendations or needs in response. Have someone write these recommendations down in a visible space followed by a student vote on which recommendations they want to keep. One approach is asking students vote in a thumbs-up manner – thumbs up mean “I agree to this recommendation,” thumbs sideways means “I can live with this recommendation,” and thumbs down means “I do not agree with this recommendation” (which requires additional group discussion). 

For slightly larger groups (80 or fewer), instructors can provide a semi-structured approach. Ask students to reflect on a prompt, such as the one listed above. Then, have students in pairs or small groups compare lists and develop a set of recommendations for the class. After each group has set up their recommendations, have them share these with the larger group. Have a note-taker write these in a visible space as they are being shared, with students voting on each recommendation. 

For large groups (anything above 80), instructors can provide a structured approach. Provide students with a prompt or some guiding terms asking the students to define in context of the prompt. These terms can include respect, active listening, and engaged participation. Collect the student responses and then develop a set of ground rules for the course. You can have students respond and suggest potential edits to your drafted ground rules for a more inclusive approach. 

Additional Considerations

• Instructors are not creating a safe space – that is reserved for spaces of healing. The goal is to create “Safe Enough” space – “Safe Enough” to share and contribute – but instructors cannot guarantee a truly safe space. Additionally, learning requires a level of discomfort: too comfortable and we don’t grow; too uncomfortable and we enter a state of fight, flight, or freeze – we want to operate in that “space between.” 
• Instructors will need to re-frame non-specific behaviors. Students will quickly say, “We should respect each other.” It is important that you push the students to define what behaviors demonstrate respect. You will have to help students process things like “eye contact” that can have cultural implications.  
• Develop a check-in procedure. A check-in procedure defines the action we agree to take in order to hold each other accountable and return to the rules. This can be as simple as saying, “Time out,” or, “Let’s return to the ground rules we agreed upon.” 

Sample Community Agreement Statements

Here are a few example recommendations if students get stalled in the process or if you would like to suggest specific agreements for the class to consider (adapted from Sustained Dialogue Institute): 

• Don’t just jump in when the water’s warm: challenge yourself to respond to different points in the discussion. 
• Share airtime. 
• Listen with an open mind. 
• We are all here with the best intentions. 
• We are all experts on our own personal experience. 
• Avoid “two-valued” thoughts and statements. 
• Address the statement, not the person. 
• Participants represent only themselves and are not representing whole social groups. 
• Use “I” statements. 
• Don’t substitute “all” for “some” or “some” for “one”. 
• Challenge yourself to say what you really mean. 
• Honor confidentiality. 
• Practice empathy. 
• Try to acknowledge, not correct, the generalizations and stereotypes in your own contributions. 
• Listen harder when you disagree. 

Dealing with devices

Electronic devices such as mobile phones or laptops can create a barrier in the classroom. They can also create opportunities for active learning activities and group work. Looking at a classroom full of students on devices, it’s hard to determine what students are doing on their devices. Allowing students to use their personal devices in the classroom is a choice every faculty member needs to make and discuss with their students early in the semester. Establish clear, compassionate policies that guide your students in using technology well in your classroom.  

Keep in mind any accessibility related reasons a student might have that require a laptop or other electronic device for class. The policy should not be so restrictive that it impedes the rights of those students with special needs, nor does it make allowance for ADA compliance. For instance, it may be worthwhile to consider if your policy for a certain class would inadvertently single out students with disabilities and/or accessibility needs. 

Considerations

• Some students will take handwritten notes. Others will use their devices to take notes faster. Some students prefer to record the class lecture so that they can listen without worry of missing key information then review the notes later. Ask students early in the semester what approach they take to notetaking.  
• Students shared that some faculty members state that students cannot use devices for notes. This limitation can create anxiety for some students who struggle to keep up with the required speed of physical notetaking. Most students did not learn cursive which slows down their handwriting speed. 

Suggestions for instructors

• Consider allowing students to use their personal devices using “screen up” and “screen down” time technique to focus student attention. For example, when the class is having a discussion, announce to the class that it’s time for “screens down”. While you are lecturing or wanting students to take notes on what is happening in the class, announce to the class that it’s time for “screens up”. 
• Talk to students early in the semester about taking notes during class sessions. If taking notes on a phone seems strange, ask a student to demonstrate this task.  

• Have conversations with students about notetaking. Don’t assume that students have figured this out. Worried about devices being a distraction, talk about it. Read about other ways to use notetaking to help students study. For more ideas, review this article from Cult of Pedagogy called NoteTaking: A Research Roundup.   

Additional Resources 

The Distracted Classroom: Transparency, Autonomy, and Pedagogy – This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education provides a theoretical framework for how an instructor might think about establishing a policy about the use of technology in the classroom that aims at improving learning while minimizing distractions.  It is part of a series on technology and distraction. 

Mobile Devices in the Classroom: Managing Distraction – This blog post from Brown provides more pointed, brief suggestions of strategies to try if technology is becoming a concern in your classroom. 

Addressing Disruptive Behavior

There is always the possibility that an issue with a particular student, group of students, or the general classroom environment will occur.  It is important to be aware of the tools that instructors have at their disposal, both for preparing to minimize classroom management issues and for dealing with crisis points in the moment.  The following resources combine general guidelines and best practices from various institutions with specific resources for UNCG faculty. 

There is no one cause of classroom disruptions, so the resources here are intentionally broad in scope. Students may be acting out of frustration, boredom, mental health issues, or a variety of other impulses, and their actions may reflect aspects of their personal lives as much as they do the classroom environment. It is important to keep this potential variety in mind, as much as is possible, when addressing issues of disruptive behavior. However, there are a variety of proactive steps that instructors can take to minimize the occurrence of these issues, and to be prepared for those situations that do emerge. 

What works best is often going to be what works best for the instructor, so think about how these suggestions fit with existing approaches and strengths.  Here are some of the available resources, but we encourage instructors to talk with your colleagues, including the UTLC, about the particulars of your situation. 

Here are some common threads from the resources below: 

• Stay calm and try not to take the disruption personally. Instructors can maintain authority in the classroom while dealing with distractions in a composed manner.  
• Decide when you will deal with the situation. It is often best for both the instructor and the student to deal with a situation without the rest of the class watching but deal with egregious disruptions immediately.        
• Listen to the students and check your understanding of their situation. It is best to give the student the benefit of the doubt at first. Let the student know that you care about their situation, which is why you want to address the disruption. 
• Decide how to proceed, and then follow through. It is important that the students recognize that the instructor will do what they say they will do.  This advice is especially important if you have to deal with the situation in front of the class. 
• Document the situation. Regardless of whether or not the instructor follows through on a formal process, it is good practice to document what happened and how the disruption was addressed. 

Assessing a Classroom Behavioral Issue 

Perhaps the most difficult task for an instructor is assessing a classroom behavioral issue in order to diagnose an appropriate response.  Not all situations will be obvious as threats to the safety of you or others, nor will all minor distractions necessarily go away on their own.  

Disruption or Danger? (PDF) – How do you identify when a behavioral issue is a disruption or a danger? This whitepaper from the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association provides some practical guidelines for preparing yourself to make such an assessment at the moment. 

UNCG Policies and Collective Standards of Conduct 

The Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities has a specific policy for disruptive behavior, defined as a speech or action which 1) is threatening, or 2) substantially impedes the delivery of university services.  After considering the specifics of your situation, you should review the UNCG Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom Policy if you determine that you would like to engage with the formal process for removing a disruptive student from your class. 

If the disruptive behavior does not rise to the level of a dangerous threat, it can still have a significant impact on the learning environment.  So, although the UNCG policy may not be appropriate, there are ways that instructors can address behavioral issues to establish and maintain collective standards of conduct. 

Disruptive Behavior and Incivility

Civility in the College Classroom – This article from the Association for Psychological Science looks at the problem of incivility in college classrooms by offering some broad suggestions for how to plan and follow through on potential incidents. 

Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom – These tips from Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning looks at how to be prepared for when a difficult moment arises out of engagement with the course content. These “hot moments,” as the author identifies them, can be great learning moments, but can be as problematic as other disruptions if not handled carefully. 

Mental Health Considerations

If you are concerned that a student’s disruptive behavior may be tied to mental health concerns, then the Counseling Center is a good resource on campus.  This FAQ from the Dean of Students Office is a good resource for assessing how to proceed and identifying more resources on campus. 

Additional Resources 

Looking for suggestions on approaches to various difficult scenarios? This resource from the University of Louisville Dean of Students has a great list for review. Response Guide for Difficult Student Situations 

If you would like to discuss alternatives to the formal process outlined in the UNCG Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom Policy, then the UTLC is happy to meet with you to discuss strategies for addressing disruptive behavior with individual students and in your course more generally.  Schedule a consultation with the UTLC to discuss classroom guidelines, activities to promote engagement, or other approaches to dealing with disruptions.