Student taking lot of space
How do you deal with a student that wants to be center stage at all times.
Hi Cynthia,
You make a good point. If the student sees you are frustrated then that person will feed on that frustration just to take you out of your game. Individuals like this enjoy being the center of attention and will take a every chance they can to keep the focus on themselves. Instructors can't let that happen or it will be a very loooooooong course.
Gary
Dr Gary,
I agree with that but would like to add, do not let the student know his behavior is frustrating you. I had one of them and truly I have forgotten more than they need to learn. Although, I teach from the textbook and cover all of the needed material. As Jamison has mentioned, some students tend to take the subject deeper and try to throw us off.
Maintain your cool as you take your class back.
Hi Jamison,
In your comments you have given some very good advice for new instructors. You cannot let one student take over the class. If you do it is going to make for a verrrrrrrrrry long course. By addressing the situation as you do you let the student know that you are going to control the class and that they are welcome to contribute when appropriate. I have that this also helps to earn respect from such a student because they know you are going to be the class leader which they know you must be if the class is going to be successful.
Gary
I get a lot of students who have a broader knowledge of terminology and medical understanding than the average joe, and every so often I get one who likes to throw his or her weight around by showing off his or her "extra" knowledge. (Either that, or they're attempting to throw ME off-balance by seeing if they can "trap" me into talking about something I really don't know about.) If it becomes a real problem/distraction, I will usually take the person aside, compliment his/her intelligence, but remind him/her that he/she needs to keep questions and comments relevant.
Hi David,
You have a real challenge with your current class setup. I teach in a similar setting myself. On Monday of this week I started a class with 87 students that is suppose to have an enrollment of 30. The class is 3 hours long one day a week. The room is small, the space restricted, and the students are sitting everywhere, meaning that some are behind me on either side. The class is a required general education class. This is not an ideal situation to say the least.
When I have such situations I use a lot of group activities where I put the students into learning groups of 6-8 and assign them topics, problems or activities where they work together and then report out to the entire group.
I plan my instruction where I lecture for 15-20 minutes and then do an activity to change the pace of the class. I also break the class up and do reviews using games and competition. All of these methods enable me to reach the entire class while meeting the individual needs of the students.
I wish you the best this course phase.
Gary
Ok, all this sounds great. I have a class with as many as 60 students in a lecture sized room. Luckily, it's not an ampitheater-type room, but it's difficult to navigate the aisles with all the backpacks, jackets, and stuff the students believe they really can't be without during my 2hr 45min class. When I have students "taking lots of space", it can be pretty ugly.
I can't change the room or amount of students I have, and since it's an intro course, I often don't have the more self-disiplined student culture in my class. Are there strategies especially for situations such as these? David
Yes I have students like this. First class room management must be incorporated and enforced. Advise the student and give counseling guidence on professionalism and teach them when to be quiet and second refer them the to program director if they are not following the instructors directions from advising.
Hi Daniel,
First I talk individually with the student and ask him/her for their cooperation on becoming a part of the class rather than the focal point of it. This works in most situations. If it doesn't I sometimes make that student a leader for a group activity so again that individual gets to be center stage but for only a limited time.
Others strategies I have used it to tell the student they cannot speak up in class unless I call on them. If they start talking or acting up I call them down just as I would if I was teaching elementary school. I warn the student before hand that this is what I am going to do so there isn't a surprise. Though, they are often surprised when I do it because they have not had this happen before.
In one case I gave a student three green cards. These were "talk cards". The student could use the cards anytime he wanted to throughout the class. It was up to him to decide when. After each time he talked I took one of the cards. By seeing the cards and holding them in his hands it became very graphic to him that he had only three cards to use wisely.
If everything else fails you can move the student out of the class though to date I haven't had to do this because the student "got it" before we got to that point.
Hope this helps you out. Any other questions let me know.
Gary
