Controlling a disruptive student
I find it very difficult to controll adult students who become disruptive.
this peer pressure tactic seems to be ideal, never thought of it until I had other students approach me and tell me how much they do not like the peers behind them talking in class.
I agree. I think that is the hardest part of my job. What I do find is that if I remove them fromthe situation and give them a few minutes to vent privately it does help. The problem that I run into is that then I am taking time away from my class.
Sometimes i think if the disruptive behavior continues that student needs to be asked to leave the room. I know this is last resort as we are there to instruct however, it is not fair to the other students who show up everyday and want to learn. I feel that bad behavior shouyld not be rewarded with a blind eye.
Occasionally, I use the last tactic which was mentioned earlier, and this seems to shock the disruptive students into improved behavior.
Robert,
Being "old school", I know how I was treated when I would become a handful in class, which wasn't very often. The ACLU, the court systems, etc have inhibited us from taking that course of action today. There are only 2 ways to handle the disruptive student. 1: ignore him/her or 2: lock horns verbally. Merely a cause and effect situtation. I have, with the prior blessings of my supervisors, signed the student out of class- and said "see you tomorrow, come back when you feel the need to learn". This tactic only would be carried out afer other verbal, written cautions have been exhausted. Develop a "paper trail" to back up your actions. The other tactic is to stop your lecture, and pose a question to the class: "how much did it cost you to attend my class? Are you getting your money's worth with this interruption"? The class (peer pressure) will handle the problem quite well, in most cases.
