College teacher misbehaviors: What students don't like about what teachers say and do

Abstract

This investigation represents a substantial change in the way we examine classroom discipline and student resistance. Rather than focusing on student non‐compliance and other types of student misbehaviors, we examined teachers themselves as potential sources of instructional and/or motivational problems in the college classroom. Study 1 was designed to elicit inductively, college student reports of teacher misbehaviors. Results indicated 28 different categories of teacher misbehaviors. Study 2 was structured to (1) validate the obtained categories of teacher misbehavior types and (2) to determine whether or not a conceptually meaningful factor structure underlies the categories. Even though most students reported that the teachers referenced in study 2 infrequently engaged in each misbehavior type, a representative number of other teachers did. Importantly, the full range of frequencies was obtained across all 28 categories. Results were further corroborated with qualitative data. Factor analyses and factor matching procedures revealed that the teacher misbehavior categories could be both meaningfully and reliably reduced to 3 factors: Teacher Incompetence, Offensiveness and Indolence. Implications for managing student resistance in the classroom are discussed.