Issue
26(1)
Addressing
Faculty and Student Classroom Improprieties: New Directions for
Teaching and Learning, No 99.
(2004).
John M. Braxton and Alan E. Bayer,
(Eds.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 120 pp. Price $29.00. ISBN
#0-7879-7794-2.
Review
by: Denise
Yacullo Rodak
Center
for Academic Advising and Adult Learning
Montclair State
University
Students
often indicate that their poor classroom performance is the result
of the professor's teaching ability/style. Advisors find that
addressing this accusation is difficult because students could
be denying accountability and blaming professors when in reality
they simply did not do the work. Or, student performance could
be the result of disorganized professors who did not establish
a classroom climate conducive to learning.
Addressing
Faculty and Student Classroom Improprieties
examines how the classroom dynamic relates to students' intellectual
development, and offers a number of suggestions on how both parties,
the students and the faculty, can be held accountable for their
actions. Organized into three parts -- background, faculty improprieties
and remedies, and student rights and improprieties -- the text
presents "theoretical and conceptual frameworks from which to
view the dynamics of both faculty and student incivilities as
they may affect both the teaching and learning process" (p. 4).
The editors contend that the actions of both parties do not exist
in a vacuum, but rather impact upon each other to ultimately determine
the classroom climate.
What
constitutes faculty improprieties? In the past, much of the focus
on faculty impropriety has been linked to indiscretions outside
of the classroom (p.89). Through research directed to the formal
teaching and learning environment, one study identified in the
text found that inadequate course preparation, a condescending
and demeaning attitude, and particularistic grading "hampers the
academic and intellectual development of students" (p. 44). To
combat these and other issues, the editors strongly recommend
that a "code of conduct for undergraduate teaching" be ratified
by the appropriate faculty governing body as a way to "communicate
to the lay public the high value placed on undergraduate students
as clients of teaching by the institution" (p. 54). Editors devote
an entire chapter to explaining what should be included in such
a code and to the steps for its implementation.
The
editors address the formalization of students' rights and expectations
through two vehicles: the student handbook and the course syllabus.
They provide detailed examples of both and cite the importance
of providing procedural guidelines for student reporting any instances
of classroom improprieties.
This
book should serve as a retention resource for advisors, department
chairpersons, deans, student government representatives, and those
involved in developing new faculty training programs. The editors
contend that "curbing student classroom incivilities can have
a positive, direct effect on subsequent commitment to the institution"
(p. 72). Although many advisors will not be a part of the development
a code of conduct for faculty members or rewrite the student handbook,
they can use the principles set forth to help students understand
their rights and responsibilities in the classroom.
