What do they expect? Academically entitled students and perceptions of teacher misbehaviors in the online classroom

Teacher misbehaviors disrupt learning (Kearney, Plax, Hays, & Ivey, 1991), and academic entitlement (AE) is on the rise (Greenberger, Lessard, Chen, & Farruggia, 2008). To better understand the online learning context, this study measures AE, perceptions of teacher misbehaviors, and online students' expectations for a variety of common student-teacher interactions. 318 online graduate students report their expectations, and these vary with a student's level of AE. Given these findings, we offer strategies for teachers in online classrooms whose goals are to avoid teacher misbehaviors and foster productive student-teacher communicative relationships that contribute to, rather than work against, learning.