Instructional Dissent in the College Classroom

The purpose of this study was to (a) identify perceived triggering agents of student dissent in the college classroom, (b) determine common target receivers of dissent, and (c) reveal the types of dissent that students enact based on their intentional motives and construction of message content. Participants were 123 undergraduate students who completed a survey and provided multiple written narratives in response to open-ended questions. Results of a content analysis revealed that (a) common perceived triggering agents of dissent included (in rank order) unfair testing/assignments, unfair grading, and teaching style, followed by instructor offensiveness, policy, violating syllabus, instructor indolence, lack of feedback, and group members slacking; (b) target receivers of dissent were primarily the class professor, classmates, friends, and family members, among others; and (c) students engaged in three types of dissent including expressive dissent (i.e., to vent their feelings and frustrations), rhetorical dissent (i.e., to attempt to correct a perceived wrongdoing by the instructor), and vengeful dissent (i.e., to retaliate and ruin the reputation of an instructor).