Dealing with the "expert" in class.
Have you ever had a student who liked to show everyone else in class how much they know? How did you handle it? I've tried different things and found that the one-on-one talk is most effective. Once you point out to the student that you value their input but provide some parameters on how and when you would like them to provide you with it, they more often than not will play nice.
Cameron,
Good way to balance the input from the different class members. Something I do is to take wooden pop sickle sticks and write the names of students on them. I put them into a cup and then draw them out at random when we are in discussion mode. This way everyone needs to be prepared and it slows down my "experts" because others get a chance to talk.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I have experts all of the time. I often battle this by asking direct questions to individual students instead of asking "class, does anybody know the answer to this?" This way, the experts do not answer every time. I find that experts will often be incorrect, so I have to be tactful to direct them into thinking about what they're saying. Often, the experts will realize they aren't experts & stop acting as such.
Timothy,
Good point. Handling a person like this is always a challenge. You have to find a way to keep him engaged while making sure he doesn't take over the class.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
When you have an expert in class,it is hard not to correct him in a matter that would degrade his knowledge, as long as you can here his train of thoughts to try to understand him,and then explain the propper pattern of the situation,hopefully he will understand and respect it.
Jeanine,
Thank you for sharing this strategy with us. Management of student behavior is an ongoing challenge for each of us. So them more ideas we have the more approaches we can take to solve such a problem.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I had a student who no doubt was knowledgable to a certain degree, but had a habit of yelling out and interrupting other students who had begun to answer. We sometimes used a ball and talking wasn't allowed unless you had it. I also had the students take turns at the board and talking was also not allowed unless you were the student presenting. It didn't completely eliminate the problem, but it reduced the occurrences to a level tolerable to others in the class.
Lauren,
Good way to handle this situation. She was able to save face but you were able to control the situation. This is what good student behavior management is about.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I had one such "expert" in class. I handled it by talking to her about how everything was fresh in her mind, since she was a recent high school graduate but because we have students that haven't be in the classroom in 30+ years, we needed to make she her behavior didn't discourage the other students.
"Experts" can also be used to help teach the rest of the class by acting as student teachers.
That only works if in fact, they do know what is begin taught :)
Wade,
I think you followed a good plan in working with this student. Yes, they often will have "attitude" after such a talk but that can be managed focusing on helping them find a role for themselves in the class. If the problem gets to great I have removed such students from my class. I won't let them infringe on the learning of others.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
