How to deal with a student that challenges everything.
Hi Faye,
I like how tactfully and professionally you have handled this student. No one likes being put on blast.
Patricia
I have a student like this now and unfortunately either she had a poor English instructor in Highschool, or she completely misunderstood rules of grammar. I have simply decided to have her write down her questions/challenges and if time, we will research in class and if not, I will bring in supporting documentation the next class... and I do. This helps to clarify her questions without making her feel she is being challenged by me, and it offers her the correct perspective without putting down another instructor.
I have had a few challenging students since i've started to instruct and I agree, keeping your head and listening to them helps,and having a one on one with them outside of the class time will help eleminate some of the disruption. And asking for help when needed is a good idea as well.
Hi Trena,
Control is everything when dealing with a challenging student. I've seen challenging students make instructors lose their cool.
Patricia
I agree, a challenging student could have its advantages and its disadvantages,as instructors we should always welcome a challenge, while being positive, Im sure everyone could benefit and learn from the situation if there some level of control. thats right....breath
Challenging as a method for a student to grasp knowledge is one thing. I welcome this type of challenge, here the worst case is we both learned something new.
Challenging for the purpose of disrupting the rest of the class & evading the work in front of them is a completely different thing. This not only affects their education, but the entire class.
Either way stay focused on keeping the "whole" class on topic, think about time limits, write questions down & small discussion groups.
Most importantly...Breath :)
I found out in one of my instruction classes with RN students that the student who was Challenging everything had a Higher expectation about the educational program which she had enrolled in. She was unhappy about the PD who was "Unorganized and Unstructured" as student put it.
I advised the student to contact the Program Director to set uo a 1:1 apponitment, so she could discuss her dissatisfaction with the program which she did. The plan worked to some extent.
There is no single solution. It depends on the topic and the students level of knowledge. I think it would be useful to respond to the challenges in a reasoned and logical way, and demonstate to the student that a challenging question is useful if it serves the purpose of advancing learning.
I thought maybe you had a magic answer to this situation. Were you asking the rest of us for suggestions?
