Lukas Sturm 12226497

LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Classroom incivility is a widespread problem in higher education nowadays. While there has
been conducted a lot of research on classroom incivility itself, students’ perception thereof is
a neglected topic. However, there are a few current studies which shed light on this topic and
therefore will form the base of this literature review.
The review will cover students’ perception of incivility as well as compare it to faculties’ view.
Moreover, effective teacher strategies to deal with incivility will be thematised. The findings
will give both teachers and faculty insight into students’ perceptions of incivility and the
practical and effective handling of classroom incivility.

BODY PARAGRAPH 1
A study conducted by Bjorklund and Rehling (2009) indicates that students perceive incivility
which they experience in their classroom as such. Mostly mid-level incivilities are reported,
whereas high-level incidents rarely occur. Interestingly, students also notice minor incivilities
such as cell phone use or side conversations more often than teachers do (Boysen, 2012).
It was also found by McKinne and Martin (2010) that students and faculty have significantly
different perceptions of the type and frequency of incivility incidents. For instance, faculty
considered certain types of behaviour to be acts of incivility more so than students did.
Students, however, noticed uncivil behaviour more often than faculty. These results indicate
that students and faculty have differing views on classroom incivility and seem to deal with it
very differently. Therefore, Mckinne and Martin (2010) suggest a collaboration between
students and faculty to address classroom incivility accordingly.

BODY PARAGRAPH 2
Teachers have a certain responsibility to manage classroom incivility. To evaluate the
effectiveness of teachers’ handling of uncivil behaviour, Boysen (2012) conducted a study in
which he investigated students’ perceptions of teacher responses to all kinds of acts of
incivility. He found that students perceived direct and private confrontation to be the most
Lukas Sturm 12226497

effective response to all types of incivility, whereas ignoring was considered to be the least
effective reaction. Moreover, increased disorderliness of an incident also raised the desire for
an immediate teacher response among students. Considering this findings, it appears that
students generally prefer prompt and resolute teacher responses, as there seems to be a
certain desire for control and order in the classroom.
Mckinne and Martin (2010) also found that the instructor’s behaviour has a greater impact on
classroom incivility than the students’ conduct. Faculty and students agreed that the former
“has to set the proper tone of the classroom.” Another interesting exploration is the consensus
about ineffective university policies treating classroom incivility. These results suggest that
both faculty and students play an important role in minimizing classroom incivility, and
effective measures in the form of policies – which would offer a great opportunity to diminish
uncivil behaviour – are yet to be introduced.

CONCLUSION
In the literature, there is an extensive agreement on students’ and faculties’ differing
perceptions of classroom incivility. This supports the notion that, in general, both of these
groups perceive and treat this issue very differently. The conducted studies also imply that
students wish for a determined handling of classroom incivility, which would be facilitated by
university policies.
However, further research may need to be conducted – especially on the implementation of
university policies – to enable faculty and teachers to implement effective strategies to deal
with classroom incivility accordingly.

REFERENCES
Bjorklund, W. L., & Rehling, D. L. (2009). Student Perceptions of Classroom Incivility. College
Teaching, 58(1), 15–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567550903252801
Boysen, G. A. (2012). Teacher Responses to Classroom Incivility. Teaching of Psychology,
39(4), 276–279. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628312456626
McKinne, M., & Martin, B. N. (2010). Higher Education Faculty and Student Perceptions of
Classroom Incivility. Journal of College and Character, 11(2).
https://doi.org/10.2202/1940-1639.1249