Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, Vol 9(2), Jun 2023, 133-149; doi:10.1037/stl0000200
The scholarship of teaching literature contains recommendations for how to manage difficult student behaviors such as incivility, cheating, and underperformance. However, there is little information about how college teachers should manage the negative emotions that can emerge in reaction to student behaviors. The current research investigated the phenomenon of teachers who develop an intense dislike of students. Psychology faculty (N = 215) and graduate students (N = 86) described their experiences with disliking students. Over half of the faculty (55%) and one-third of the graduate students (34%) had intensely disliked a student. Intense dislike was relatively infrequent with the largest percentage of participants indicating that it happened with less than 1 student every 2 to 3 years. Causes of dislike varied, but disrespectfulness, poor academic performance, and classroom disruption were among the most common reasons. When dislike did occur, almost all faculty (89%) and graduate students (89%) reported that they took steps to diminish its effects. Some of the most common steps were intentional professionalism, implementing objective grading procedures, and consulting with peers or the student. Nonetheless, disliking a student sometimes led to negative effects, the most common being reduced teaching effectiveness, negative emotions, and poor interactions with the student. These results suggest that college teachers should be aware that they are likely to encounter students that they intensely dislike and that they should prepare strategies to help them mitigate the negative effects of dislike. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)