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Student Perspectives of Classroom Disruptions

Written by: Dr. Derrick L. Campbell

Article Overview: In a school consisting of 99% White teachers and 98% historically underserved students, students reported that teacher behavior is the major cause for classroom disruptions. Excessive classroom disruptions that involve teachers and historically underserved students indicate that there are racial interaction challenges between teachers and students. During interviews one student stated, ...

Student Perspectives of Classroom Disruptions

In a school consisting of 99% White teachers and 98% historically underserved students, students reported that teacher behavior is the major cause for classroom disruptions.

Excessive classroom disruptions that involve teachers and historically underserved students indicate that there are racial interaction challenges between teachers and students.

During interviews one student stated, "that [teacher] was out of control . . . I [had] already turned around doing my work, Why [do] you want me to turn around again? That makes no sense to me. That does not make . . . sense at all".

Another student reflected on a teacher's behavior. "I used to be in [one teacher's class]. [This teacher] used to kick everybody out for no reason. We all was sitting there, [he would say] you are not doing your work, get out."

Another student stated, "I was mad because [the teacher] just snapped on me . . . I really did not do anything. I was just asking what the question was, and [the teacher] did not want to repeat it because I guess he said it so many times".

Another student believed teachers yelling at students caused classroom disruptions. When a teacher yells, uses harsh words, shames, degrades, or embarrasses a student, such behavior influences all students (Vitto, 2003). Good teachers do not yell at students and give them the opportunity to improve their behavior when they misbehave (Gorham, 1987). Students believe good teachers do not yell (Aksoy, 1998). Some Black students believe that caring teachers yell and are strict as long as the teacher does not overuse these strategies (Shanoski & Hranitz, 1991).

In addition to students blaming teachers they also admitted students caused classroom disruptions. The interviewed student stated, "We got in an argument because I did not want to do the work . . . I did not understand it. Me not noticing that she was helping everybody else, I wanted her to come directly to me before everybody else. She just wanted me to do it on my own. I balled up the paper, and I called her crazy. I got kicked out of class".

Some minority students may have difficulty with some teacher and school selected classroom instructional materials. Instructional materials and instructors that work well for European students do not necessarily work well for culturally diverse students, and to believe that they do is to assume that Black, Latino, American Indian, Asian, Arab and African immigrants have identical personal, social, cultural, historical, and family traits (Leiding, 2006). Teachers need to realize that constructed classroom collaboration may be more culturally relevant and meaningful to some students (Milburn, 2000).

Cooperative learning structures provide a cultural match for Hispanic students (Moll, 1988). "African American learning seems to be influenced by the social situation in which learning occurs" (Shade, 1997, p. 23). Blacks prefer to work in groups (Shade et al., 1997) and socially interactive environments (Cureton, 1978; Slavin, 1983). Black students do well when the teacher incorporates a socialization learning model (Morgan, 1981) and "will work together to benefit the group" (Gilbert & Gay, 1985, p. 134). Black students work and function better in cooperative, informal, and loosely structured environments where teachers and students work together to achieve a common goal. References

Aksoy, N. (1998).Opinions of Upper Elementary Students About a "Good Teacher" Case Study in turkey. ED428042.

Cureton, G. (1978). Using a black learning style. The Reading Teacher, 1(7), 751-756.

Gilbert, S., & Gay, G. (1985). Improving the Success in School of Poor Black Children. Phi Delta Kappan, 67(2), 133-137.

Gorham, J. (1987). Sixth grade Students' Perceptions of Good Teachers (ED359164).

Leiding, D. (2006). Racial Bias in the Classroom: Can teachers reach all children? Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Milburn, T. (2000). Inferring Cultural Learning Styles - Puerto Ricans in the US. ED448492.

Moll, L. (1988). Some key issues in teaching Latino students. Language Arts, 65(5), 465-472.

Morgan, H. (1981). Factors concerning cognitive development and learning differentiation among Black children. In A. Harrison (Ed.), Conference on Empirical Research in Black Psychology. Rochester, MI: Oakland University.

Shade, B. (1997). African-American Cognitive Patterns: A review of the Research. In B. Shade (Ed.), Culture, Style, and the Educative Process: Making Schools Work for Racially Diverse Students. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.

Shanoski, L., & Hranitz, J. (1991). A Foundation for Excellence in Teaching. ED356212.

Vitto, J. (2003). Relationship Driven Classroom Management: Strategies that promote student motivation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Article Tags: classroom disruptions, student perspectives, teacher behavior



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