The classroom environment can be highly social, a situation which may prove challenging for students with quiet tendencies. This qualitative study focused on the perceptions of 10 self-identified quiet college students through an analysis of their first-hand accounts of their experiences in postsecondary classrooms. This study found three major…

Quiet students are sometimes misunderstood in the college classroom. Students may be quiet for reasons related to personality traits, learned behaviors, or situational factors, but regardless, their silences may be misinterpreted by their instructors as a lack of engagement in their courses. In fact, quiet students are often very engaged in the…