Persistent chatter at the back of the lecture hall can be distracting when educators are trying to teach – and difficult to quell. Obviously, on-topic dialogue is often necessary, especially during group work, but an intermittent hum of background talk can be disruptive, as well as patently unfair to other students, particularly those with learning differences such as dyslexia and ADHD.
In more than 17 years of my own practice, much of which has involved observing the teaching of others, unsolicited talking in class is a challenge I have seen lecturers frequently face in lecture halls and large classes. And if class sizes and student-staff ratios increase further, the issue is only likely to get worse, and more challenging to manage, as universities seek to address the sector’s financial crisis. Cardiff University has stated that the spectre of larger classes is due to “a simple equation of affordability”, while the University of East Anglia recently described such moves as “inevitable” and one of the “easiest ways” to improve efficiency and productivity.
The issue is pertinent to lecturers already lamenting falling student participation, attendance and attention. The last AdvanceHE UK Engagement Survey 2022 found that student engagement (learning with others) fell from 56 per cent in 2015-18 to 47 per cent in 2022 (although that was a bounce-back from 37 per cent in 2021). Meanwhile, students are expressing “a strong desire for more engaging and interactive teaching approaches”, a need for more personalised support, and meaningful connections and communication with staff to avoid feeling “anonymous”, according to the 2025 Student Academic Experience Survey. Maybe it’s time to “stop blaming Covid”, as Jenny Darroch of Miami University wrote in Inside Higher Ed, and accept that Gen Z students expect a personalised experience that lectures often do not provide.
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So, perhaps the issue of persistent student chatter points to a way to improve overall student engagement in large classes. What can educators do?
First, let’s look at convention. The very architecture and furniture of our classrooms and lecture theatres all but dictate that lecturers teach from the front of the room. The pedestal, computer and screen display are usually at the front. Even the seating can suggest a physical hierarchy, with students arranged in ascending tiers while the lecturer remains at the base, emphasising a one-directional flow of knowledge and authority.
So, why not teach from the back?
A great deal can be gained from not only moving around and using the space, but also from teaching from the rear of the room or even joining the students around the tables or amid the rows in the lecture theatre or large classroom. Traditional tiered lecturer theatres present more of a challenge, but when the room is all on one level, like many of those in newer builds, this approach is much more practical. It is also worth considering if your seminar or workshops now more resemble a lecture than small-group teaching.
To get started, move away from the front of the room. This allows you to circulate among the students, enabling you to spot errant behaviours more easily and correct them accordingly. As an educational developer observing the practice of others from the back of the room, I often see not only what lecturers cannot, but the enormous potential of such a position for teaching and engaging students.
I’m not suggesting that educators implement a kind of Benthamite, Foucauldian “panopticon” as a means of exerting power and enacting surveillance, but what is useful from Faucault’s work is the notion that visibility (or the possibility) encourages individuals to self-monitor and conform voluntarily. This is patently not of the more sinister type of discipline and control envisaged by Foucault; we are merely seeking to encourage students to engage in learning and exploit the learning potential afforded to them. They are, after all, paying for such opportunities and staff contact time via their fees. It is surveillance with the best of intentions: to facilitate learning. And in this scenario, it also has the potential to empower learners and democratise the learning environment in ways that can facilitate the personalised interaction students desire from their learning experiences.
Teaching from the back helps to minimise or even eliminate the traditional power dynamics of the classroom. By literally stepping off our pedestals and being among the students, we become almost one of them, both physically and in terms of the materials on the screen at the front of the room. By looking at and talking about the slides in front of you (as opposed to behind you), you shift the power dynamics towards a sense of being in it together, as it were, as a community of learners.
At a stroke, it also renders you more accessible and approachable, more able to catch the eye of a student looking confused or intervene if unwarranted “chatter” is instigated.
Such practices also align with several of the key professional values of the Professional Standards Framework (2023), primarily those aimed at engagement, equity of opportunity, support and effective learning environments
So, to enhance your practice while also addressing distractions in your classrooms and lecture theatres, educators can mix up their delivery style and use of space:
- move around the room and use the room or lecture theatre more fully
- teach from the back as well as the front.
This is a low-tech, cost-free way to render yourself more accessible and approachable, and to democratise the learning experience. When you physically move away from being the “sage on the stage”, you replace talk with walk.
Adrian J. Wallbank is an associate professor of academic development at Oxford Brookes University.
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