The Social & Psychological Environment
In looking at many of these responses, almost all that I've read seem to be about the physical or technological environment. But the single most important component of the classroom environment is mostly conspicuous by its absence.
The most important aspect of any learning environment are the students themselves.
Never, ever forget that otherwise intelligent & resourceful minds can be easily shut down by the social atmosphere & you might not even be aware of it. Many students are eager to learn & to ask questions, but are so afraid of how they appear to their classmates that they'll never raise an issue. Sometimes one narcissistic student can completely sabotage a session with an attitude that you weren't prepared to deal with.
Here's an idea to try opening the floor for questions. Find a couple students in each class who are out-going. They don't have to be especially smart or natural leaders. In fact, this may often work better if they're not especially gifted. Give each one or two questions to ask during the lecture (or their own should they have any), just to get the proverbial "ball rolling." The reason it's good if they're not always gifted is that one needs to see that any student can ask a question. Of course, make sure that you have an answer prepared for any question that you've planted, or at the least, one that you can easily field.
Handling a hostile or self-centered alpha-male (or -female) on the fly is not something that I'm really good at. (If it's not too egregious, I like to wait until I can get him or her in private.) So, I'm going to try carrying a set of yellow & red penalty cards (like in soccer) next term, just in case. Any other ideas about solving this problem?
Any other problems in the classroom social setting that you've encountered?
Hi Kristen,
One of the strategies you could use with her is to tell the class you are setting a time limit on responses. That could be one-two-three minutes what ever works in your class setting. The time limit would be for everyone but of course is targeted for her. By sharing this general announcement you set the stage and then stick by the time limit for all students. You will find that it doesn't take long before she will start to shorten her responses especially if you call time on her a couple of times when she rambles.
Hope this works for you. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Gary
I am in a similar predicament where I have one student that likes to 'over share' information. It is frustrating to me and to the other students. I respect her input and I want her and the other students to feel comfortable sharing in class, but I am having a hard time keeping her under control. I've made a general statement about keeping anecdotes to a minimum since we have so much information to cover, that worked for a while, but it seems that we are back almost to where we started.
Hi Daniel,
Excellent remarks about how we need to always be student centered in everything we do. It all the things we do sometimes we can forget the focal point of our efforts.
Your strategies for handling the different social components of a class are good ones. They are similar to those that I have used as well. Each time I am faced with such a situation I try to reflect back on what has happened in the past and how I can tailor that strategy to work in this situation.
I am like you in that I like to try and address such issues privately with the student so we can mutually resolve the challenges that are being presented. Generally this approach works, though in several cases I had to ask the students to either change behavior or I would remove them from class. In one situation I explained that it was not fair to the other students when he acted as he did. He constantly spoke out and demeaned other students in the class. I complemented him on his knowledge but told him that everyone was not at his level and that he had to understand that they needed the instruction I was providing in order to grow in the field. Keep in mind he wasn't that knowledgeable but thought he was, plus was very vocal. With him it worked and he backed off. The ground rule was he could answer if I called on him. (Similar to the card format) So I would on occasion and this was enough to keep him quite and happy. A side part of this issue was that he always talked with me after class to inform me about some additional knowledge he had or something he has learned. This took some of my time but the exchange was worth it. I gave him some time and he didn't disrupt the class and he got to tell me how smart he was after class for a few minutes. For me the time was well spent since I had a good class and he had his need of telling someone in authority that he was smart.
I have dealt with many social issues over the years that have involved personal attacks between students, hygiene, romance, etc. All of which had a profound effect on the class dynamics. I handled each one on an individual basis and when the issue was out of my area of expertise I referred it to the college administration. The interesting part about teaching is that after thirty years of teaching I still encounter new situations that I have never seen before and have to develop new strategies to handle. Never a boring moment as an educator.
Gary
