CIs and classroom layout?

Boice’s chapter 8 on classroom incivilities (and how to moderate them) was quite interesting to me. He looked closely at the messages professors and students send, and how those messages are received, focusing particularly on that personal dynamic to discuss this issue. I’m curious, though, if the classroom layout and size has any impact on these CIs.

I ask because I recently switched my class from our intimate classroom with no windows in the basement of Strickland into a room 4 times the size with 30 computers and 3 large windows on the second floor of Strickland. Since the relocation, my students’ behaviors have changed. I’m not sure if this is because of the room, the timing in the semester, the paper load, their stress levels, how they feel about me, or what. However, they’re chatty now, during times when I’d prefer them not to be chatty. And, getting them to make eye contact is harder. Only a select few answer questions and participate in group discussions. It was never this way before!

My hunch is that it’s a combination of all these issues: the room is too big. There’s too much technology distracting them. It’s the end of the semester and they’re ready to be done. They’ve made friends and it’s nice to catch up when they get to see each other. I haven’t had to stop them from being chatty in this way before, and they’ve realized that I’m kind of a softy. Etc.

Even though my students are being disruptive, I don’t necessarily think the solution is to chastise them. I think that the solution might just be to let them work on their sparkly computers and converse with each other when needed—give them a task and let them work at their own pace, reporting back at the end of class. I think I’ll try that tomorrow. Maybe it’ll help to moderate what were once classroom incivilities.

PS: I apologize for reading ahead and jumping the conversation for next week. Chapters 7 and 8 are interesting, btw, particularly the part in chapter 7 about collaborating and letting others do some of the teaching work for you—I like that idea.