Tackling Academic Incivility by Shifting the Focus to Student-Centered Pedagogical Approaches

Abstract

‘Power distance’ and ‘power relations’ are two concepts that have been repeatedly used to depict interactions between faculty and students, especially in uncivil learning environments. Different learning environments and corresponding pedagogical designs are often typified by different power relationships. The last several years have brought rapid changes to learning environments. New modes of teaching and learning as well as new communication strategies have been espoused as alternatives to the traditional, teacher-centered classroom model. Teachers in traditional classrooms, are largely, if not exclusively, responsible for setting goals, designing learning tasks and assessing progress. Traditional teacher-student relationships, described at length earlier in this book, are often perceived as an exhibition of authority and as the exercise of exclusive power by teachers. In contrast, in constructivist, student-centered classrooms, knowledge and authority are shared among teachers and students. The power structure that typifies traditional learning environments is similar to the structure that supports uncivil class encounters, while constructivist classrooms represent the opposite pole. This chapter describes the main tenets of constructivist pedagogy, centering on the shifts in control over the learning process, from external, as used in conventional and well-structured learning settings, to the students. It is through such shifts in power relationships between teachers and contemporary millennial students that constructivist approaches may mitigate academic incivility.