Managing the disruptive student
There is a student that we all know well. He/she asks many questions; is quick to answer questions asked often times without being called on; does not receive critism well from colleagues. There are discussions with the student regarding their behavior and you review suggestions for how they can improve and not distance themselves from their peers. Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Jeffrey,
I wish you much success in using learning groups. I think you are going to really enjoy the results you get.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I can see this working very well.You can change the groups around as needed to keep students learning. You can put students together that can benefit from each other that would not normally group together on their own.
I like it,
Thank you
Jeffrey,
Moving students around is another way of controlling their behavior. When I need to gain control of a group of students I break the class into learning groups. I have the students count off because generally the trouble making students are sitting together. By having them count off I separate them as a result of their counting off but I haven't done it as the instructor it is just that I need 6 groups and they count off 1 through 6. Then I put them into groups and do an activity or case study. This really helps to distribute the troublesome students and I have control of the class.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Barbara,
This way you have maintained control of the class while showing the student that you are interested in working with him/her if they are interested in being successful in the class.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
There are so many different kinds of disruptive behavior. Talking to them out of class and setting limits does not work all the time. Has anyone have other suggestions for dealing with immaturity in an adult learning class
I agree that you should always talk to students outside the classroom. If a student is disrupting the class during your teaching lesson, I would excuse the student from class and ask him/her to make an appointment to come and speak to me after class.
Mary Ann,
I set a rule that each student can only contribute one idea or story related to the discussion at a time before I move on to the next student. I tell the students that if we have time then I will come back to them for a second contribution to the discussion. The "one contribution by one student" rule lets me stop a student if he/she goes on or interrupts another student. Very quickly the students start to follow this rule and we have good discussions with all students contributing. The key is being consistent with this rule, if you aren't the students will quickly run over you.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Barbara,
Thank you for sharing how this little bit of time resulted in a problem solved. Sometimes the personal touch as well as single focused talks can resolve the most complex student behavior problems.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I have a few students who when we are discussing a particular topic introduce their own experiences. Sometimes this can be helpful, but at other times, it can start to "take over" the classroom. Can you suggest a good way to "steer" the students back to the relevant topic?
Having a private talk with the disruptive student has helped.
I have had to have a talk outside the classroom regarding the behavior. The student was getting out of hand and disrupting the other students. I felt that it was best outside the classroom after everyone was gone so that it was handled dicretely. The problem was solved.
Kristi,
Good insight for working with challenging students. The more we know about them the greater chance we have of working successfully with them.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Often times the talkative students are after attention. A private discussion with them after class often reveales much about their personality. Not all disruptive students are the same. Using their strengths in class and minimizing their annoying habits benefits all students. In my experience, most students are patient to a point with those disruptive students, and will try to help in the classroom.
Robert,
Thank you for sharing this strategy with us. This types of hints and helps can go into our class management tool boxes to be pulled out when we have such a student and we will.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Mark,
In your discussions with the student I would suggest that you seek his/her help in managing the classroom. Give him/her credit for previous contributions but ask if he/she would be willing to limit his/her input to (some number of questions or responses to say 2 or 3 per class session). Explain that you know he/she knows the material but that you are trying to find out what the others know through their asking of questions and giving information. This plays to his/her ego and most disruptive students like that. If the student should go beyond the set number of inputs then you can pause and by just looking at them they will generally pull back. What you are doing is cuing through looking at the student and letting him/her know that their behavior will not be accepted in the class. You will find that this will work most of the time, if it doesn't you can move to removing the student from the class if that type of action is required and he/she is infringing on the learning of others.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Hello I had a disruptive student in my class and I had him lecture the class often. Everytime he had a wise comment I would have him explain his point of view in front of the class. He had stage fright so he limited his comments knowing he would be asked to teach his peers. It was also recommended that he would sit in the front of the class right next to me.
