How do adolescent students and their teachers conceptualize classroom incivility?

Abstract

Classroom incivility is an important construct to be addressed in relation to adolescent development. Therefore, the current study investigated similarities and differences between perceptions of adolescent students and teachers. Participants consisted of 40 intermediate and high school teachers and 52 students in grades 7-12. Both students and teachers rated how serious and how often uncivil behavior occurred in the classroom. Participants also responded to open-ended questions, allowing for a deeper exploration of their perceptions. Our results revealed that adolescent students consider uncivil behaviors that may be disrespectful towards the teacher as more uncivil than do teachers themselves. Teachers rated adolescents engaging in uncivil behavior towards each other as most serious, as well as discussing the negative implications of incivility to the learning environment. Taken together, the findings of this study are an important addition to the existing literature on adolescent incivility, while being directly applicable to the classroom setting.