In this article, I offer a story, rendered in creative nonfiction, of my experience as a young and flustered college professor challenged by a defiant and disruptive graduate student. The story is followed by a critical reflection of the experience where I examine the role of communication and culture in regard to classroom disruptions and assess…

Classroom management practices are critical to the success of teachers and students, and a growing number of programs have been developed to improve these practices. However, there has been less investigation into observational tools to assess classroom management and exploration of whether it can be measured consistently by observers across…

Classroom management practices are critical to the success of teachers and students, and a growing number of programs have been developed to improve these practices. However, there has been less investigation into observational tools to assess classroom management and explore whether it can be measured consistently by observers across elementary,…

The interactions between teachers and students provide a venue for instructional delivery and ultimately student achievement in the school setting. However, not all students experience positive interactions with teachers in the typical classroom setting, especially those students exhibiting behavioral challenges. These students are observed with…

The purpose of this study was to examine a theoretical model of the relationship between teacher misbehaviors and both student communication behavior (i.e., student resistance, student participation) and learning outcomes (i.e., cognitive learning, affective learning, state motivation, communication satisfaction). Participants were 343 students…

Finds strong positive main effects for teacher immediacy and strong negative effects for teacher misbehavior on all three dimensions of credibility (competence, trustworthiness, and caring/goodwill). Finds, however, that with low teacher immediacy, both "nonmisbehavior" and misbehavior produced perceptions of low credibility; whereas…

Investigated use of behavior alteration techniques in managing student misbehaviors. Found that inexperienced teachers are likely to employ the same strategies, regardless of misbehavior type or intensity: (1) appealing to student's self-esteem and (2) feedback. (PD)

For over 30 years, there has been a continuing concern with differential teacher attention to boys and girls in the classroom. In this article, we review themes and issues in gender and classroom interaction. The evolving theoretical perspectives on gender inequality are discussed and the pertinent empirical evidence is reviewed. The influence of…

Retreating is a behavior which occurs when a teacher issues a directive intended to influence student behavior, and the students ignore the teacher in such a way as to let it be known that she/he has not influenced their behavior. Discusses this behavior and offers six rules useful in avoiding retreating. (Author/JN)

Conducted as part of a research program examining teachers' use of compliance gaining strategies to control specific student misbehaviors, a study investigated the strategies used by experienced teachers in dealing with student misbehaviors. The purpose was to compare the findings with those of an earlier study with prospective teachers. Subjects…

Developing Student Self-Discipline in Schools and Classrooms is a program designed for teachers, counselors, administrators, educational decision-makers and other school personnel who are concerned about the disruptive effect of discipline problems in many schools today. The course offers a repertoire of proven techniques and skills useful for…

As the fourth in a series of investigations of teacher power in the classroom, a study focused primarily on extending and refining the classification of behavior alteration techniques (BATs) and behavior alteration messages (BAMs) that teachers report as representative of the classroom environment. The study took place in three phases. First,…

To change the way classroom discipline and student discipline are examined, a two-study investigation, rather than focusing on student noncompliance and other types of student misbehaviors, examined teachers themselves as potential sources of instructional and/or motivational problems in the college classroom. The first study was designed to…

This paper reviews ways in which teachers inadvertently reinforce negative behavior of elementary school students through negative verbal or nonverbal communication. Discussion first points out differences between nonverbal and verbal communication, and then focuses on consequences of negative communication for children. Special attention is given…

Recognizing that nonverbal behaviors typically provide the framework for interpreting verbal messages, this project (the sixth in a series of projects designed to examine teacher power in the classroom) proposed and sequentially tested a heuristic model of student affective learning as a function of behavior alteration techniques and teacher…