Source: Alamy

Seeing red: lecturers have resorted to a technique used in primary schools

Students¡¯ in-class behaviour is sometimes so bad that lecturers are resorting to a red and yellow card warning system ¨C a technique sometimes used by primary schoolteachers.

Undergraduates would ¡°push the teacher as much as they could¡± so lecturers were having to police their behaviour in ways ¡°you wouldn¡¯t even expect in secondary school¡±, according to a study of ¡°laddism¡± among sports science students.

Carolyn Jackson, a professor in the department of educational research at Lancaster University, observed lecturers and interviewed students and academics at a large post-1992 institution in the south of England between 2011 and 2013.

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¡°Laddish¡± behaviour included ¡°talking and generally being loud (which disrupted classes); being a?joker; throwing stuff; arriving late; and being rude and disrespectful to lecturers¡±, according to her paper, ¡°?¡®Lad Culture¡¯ and Learning in Higher Education¡±.

¡°Some lecturers told alarming stories of aggressive and very antagonistic confrontations between lecturers and male students,¡± it adds.

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Presenting her paper at the annual conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education in Newport, Wales, in December, Professor Jackson said lecturers had to use ¡°shocking¡± behaviour management techniques, such as the card system, something one ¡°wouldn¡¯t even expect in secondary school¡±.

One student, Pete, described how the lads in his first year would indulge in ¡°loudness, messing about, giggling, laughing in classes and trying to get away with stuff and push the teacher as much as they could¡±.

Other students would chastise the ¡°lads¡± for their behaviour, Professor Jackson¡¯s research found. One lecturer, John, recalled a ¡°very strong lass¡± turning to the lads and saying: ¡°will you shut the fuck up, I¡¯m trying to learn¡±.

¡°And they did¡­peer pressure gets them a lot more because suddenly they¡¯re made to look fools by a girl,¡± the lecturer said.

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Another lecturer said the card system was used ¡°because football students understand this rule very well¡±, Professor Jackson recalled.

But the paper suggested that after the first year, the most disruptive students had been ¡°weeded out¡± as many failed their first-year exams.

Last year the National Union of Students published That¡¯s What She Said, a report on women¡¯s experience of ¡°lad culture¡± in universities, which documented boorish, heavy drinking, misogynist and homophobic behaviour by male students.

However, Professor Jackson¡¯s research found almost no evidence of sexual harassment or ¡°rape-supportive attitudes¡± by lads, and homophobia was ¡°rarely mentioned¡±.

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david.matthews@tsleducation.com