Classroom Decorum

Salve Regina University

 

In order to try to insure that all class participants experience a stress-free and non-distracting learning environment, the following Classroom Social Rules & Regulations are put forth and your cooperation solicited:

 

q       The university prohibits the consumption of food products in class.  If you must have access to fluids while in class, limit what you bring to bottled water and discard empties appropriately when you leave.

 

q       Please be on time.   If you arrive late be sure to just take your seat quietly so as not to disrupt the lecture or other ongoing activity.

 

q       If you have special health issues that may require you to leave in the middle of a lecture on some regular basis, plan ahead for this, arrive early, and take a seat near the door.  Class members who repeatedly leave in the middle of a lecture are distracting to both the professor and other class members.  If you have to leave the class early to manage some personal matter, inform the professor ahead of time and again sit near the door if you can.

 

q       If you are unavoidably late, and, if attendance has been taken, it is your responsibility to inform the professor after class to have your presence in class credited.

 

q       You are responsible for any planned class activity such as a test or quiz even if you were absent from an earlier class in which it was announced.   You must contact a fellow class member or the professor after an absence to inquire about what is going to be happening when you return.

 

q       Only one person should be speaking at a time during a lecture, whether that is the professor or a fellow class member commenting or asking a question.   Having others talking while you are speaking before a group is enormously distracting.   It is distracting for the speaker and for other students sitting in your vicinity who may be trying to understand a difficult concept.  Please honor this important request.

 

q       It is totally inappropriate to work on other reading or writing activities at length while your professor is lecturing.  Leave the updating of your appointment book, the studying for some other class, and the reading of material related to another course to your own time out of class.  It is enormously distracting for a speaker when people do this.

 

q       Would you believe my having to mention sleeping in class?  If you are too tired to be in class, stay home.   People who fall asleep will be asked to leave.  That in itself is disruptive to the class activity. Related to this, the turning on of a video clip also is not a signal to go back to bed.  If you have a medical reason for such behavior, inform the professor ahead of time.

 

q       Active cell phones and pagers are not welcome in the classroom.  If you regularly carry one of these devices during the day, make sure you shut it off before coming in class. 

Anthony A. Walsh, Ph.D.

Chairman, Department of Psychology

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