Students who try to dominate
Every now and then, I get a student who attempts to dominate the classroom...speaking first and out of turn, bringing negative attitudes out, bringing up off topic discussions, and challenging just for the sake of challenging. This is the type of student that I have the most difficulty in dealing with. They seem to be putting on a kind of front...not for my benefit... but to establish him/her self as dominant in the classroom. Any suggestions on how to deal with this type of dominator?
This is an issue that occurs for me, too. My student mix tends to run from 18 to 50 years old. Dispite 20 years of experience in my field, one or two of my older students have resented being taught by someone younger than them. I still try to negotialte this mine field and can't say that I am expert at it yet.
Students love to share personal stories about the topic, but they can take away valuable time in an accelerated learning environment.
One supervisor I had offered this suggestion. She reserved one corner of the board as a "parking lot". If a student raised their hand, she would ask if this was a question or a personal experience they would like to share. If it was a story, the students name went into the parking lot so that she would not forget to get back to them. Often, when there was time for the student to share, the student would change their mind because the learning had moved onto other things that they were now fully engaged in. This also works for students who are always ahead of the teacher and asking questions about things that are still to be covered. Tell them, "That is an excellent question. We are about to cover that so I'm going to put your name in the parking lot. When we are done, I will ask if I have answered your question." After a while, they learn to trust that the instructor is going to cover the topic thoroughly.
I enjoy a dominate student, they can only take over the class if you allow it. I'll answer their on topic questions and I tell them to write down the rest of their off topic questions. I address all their other questions in private, I also let them know that being a distraction is not part of learning and learning is why their here.
Instead of treating them differently or ignoring them I load them down with responisblity and make them accountable for those responisbilities. So far that's done the trick and most of the time they become my top student.
John
Hi Valerie!
Good for you - a great strategy. You didn't degard or disregard the importance of her comments but controlled the classroom environment.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED107 Facilitator
I recently had a dominant student added to my class. WOW! I had no idea how they can take over.
Every topic I introduce to the class, she tells you she does not understand until she adds her personal life to it........with a story behind it......a very loonnngg story. :)
So now when she raise her hand, it is very hard to tell if the question is going to be about the topic being taught or the story to come.
So I'm sorry I tell her hold that question to the end. Write it down if u think u will forget, (because she kept controlling the lecture) and little by little she became a little less of a distraction in the classroom.
I try to turn dominate students into my advantage. My voice doesn't carry very well in a noisy environment, so I ask my dominate student to bring everyone back to attention. I also turn the dominate student's challening questions back to the class, by stating, "Does anyone else have anything to add?"
I agree, these are the kinds of students that I have the hardest time with as well. My experience has been with older students. They see me much younger then they are and they judge me base on my age. They feel like they can tell me what to do. I've had one on one conversations with them to make sure they understand that it's not right for them to have that attitude. After that, they back off and I can run my class more confortably.
