How would you handle a very diificult student
I have a student that backtalks to me and other students in front of the class. I have addressed the situation with her yet she is non compliant. I noticed that students are moving away from her. She has only been here 2 months and frankly I dread it. I have had students come to me stating they follow my lead on how to handle her. I ignore what she says usually, because she will continue if I address it in front of the class. Yet, I do speak with her privatly and she seems like she wants to improve. Any ideas?
There are times when this happens to me, what I do is, ask her why she is in this class? Because ifshe is so informed about this course she should be teaching the class and if she feel that she is qualified to do so she should come up to the front of the class and teach. this usually stops that. but if it continues I speak with her after class and remind her that I will not tolerate that behavior again and if it happens she will be dropped from my class. this usually works.
I would again speak to student in private and re-enforce student non compliances with her and if this promblem continue she will get a written warning, and if no improvement she will be dimiss from class,and this meeting will serve as a verbal warning.
Hi Carol,
Good advice. One can not ruin the class for others. Enrollment in a career college class is voluntary so the student can either comply with the rules (in this case, common courtesy) or they will be dismissed. This would occur only after all of the encouragement and support strategies have been tried.
Gary
Hi Delores,
This also is good advice for how to handle a student like this. The key is document, document, document. This student will not be able to claim she has not been warned. Also, in these dicussions with the student attempts can be made to try and determine why she is acting as she is. Many times the behavior is due to external forces that are brought to class. Instructors can often help a student like this to seperate their personal lives from their professional preparation so they can keep moving forward in their career training. In other cases dismissal is the only way to deal with the situation. Tough call for everyone.
Gary
Hi Melissa,
There have been several responses to your forum question. All of which have given you good advice. You have several factors working in your favor, the biggest being the support of the other students. They are looking to you for leadership in how to deal with this student and you are providing it.
An suggestion you might want to try is developing a contract with her. You mentioned that in talking with her privately she seems to want to improve. The behavior contract would be an agreement between the two of you concerning her behavior in your class. The reason for the contract is to simply get down in print expectations for her. This way there will be not confusion. Also, this puts you in a position that if you have to dismiss her from the class you have documentation of the steps you followed. When I use a contract like this I meet once a week with the student to review progress or lack there of. This meeting helps me to understand the student better and gives the student individual attention which is often his/her need.
I wish you the best on dealing with this issue. Keep me posted.
Gary
Addressing the student in private is proper, and preferred. It shows a certain amount of respect for the student, and in return you are permitted to ask the same. The goal is a learning environment and one way to determine if a student is confrontational, bored, or just a trouble maker is to challenge them. When I say "challenge" you should take one day and make them the "star" of the class. You focus all questions on them, use a socratic method to draw out their answers, make them think for a moment, and they may get tired of being the class ass-clown and see that hidden productivity that is overshadowed by the fact that they are behaving badly.
Thank you everyone for the great advise. I am going to sit with my director to get her input on the behavior contract. And I have been reading on-line abouth the Socratic method. It sounds very interesting. Im intimidated by it, so if I learn more I will aquire more confidence. Do you have any suggestions on this method or know of any good websites or books?
Well it looks like you have a difficult situation but not impossible to conquer....I particular like the response to make the student the star for a day...Make sure you don't show favoritism...
This student may be crying for attention so give it to her...Put her in charge of something making her feel important and responsible for something....She may be a natural leader and it may take a little push to get the ability and talent in a controlled behavior insteah of a distruptive behavior...
I normally, ask any student who has difficultly discussing any issue to write it down and speak with me after class. I state this on the first day and repeatedly through out the course. I also, have a three step policy. 1) If a student outbursts during class, I pull them out and remind them discuss is to take place on break or after class. 2) I formally advise the student, I have found some students need written instructions on what has happened and what needs to be done. 3) I send the student to the program director or DOE.
I normally, ask any student who has difficultly discussing any issue to write it down and speak with me after class. I state this on the first day and repeatedly through out the course. I also, have a three step policy. 1) If a student outbursts during class, I pull them out and remind them discuss is to take place on break or after class. 2) I formally advise the student, I have found some students need written instructions on what has happened and what needs to be done. 3) I send the student to the program director or DOE.
Hi Annie,
Good plan. Difficult students are always a challenge but when they are adults it seems even harder since as educators we want to make sure we don't embarass the students but don't want them to take over the class. You have a good plan in place. In any plan you have to make sure that you have covered the steps necessary to retain control of the class but have not let the student ruin the class for others. I have found in many cases student outbursts reflect a problem they have brought to class and is not directed at me personally. Sometimes this is hard to remember so I have to remind myself of such.
What are some of the situations that you have found in your teaching experience that cause students to react and how did you handle them?
Thannks.
Gary
One recently was not in my class but in another class, a student had been cheating repeatedly and the instructor had not seen her do it. However, every student in the class had. She also had told the students how she cheated. The students began to complain and become very vocal about how they studied extremely hard and did not want to be around someone who never came to class, cheats and gets away with it. One day the class had enough and started outbursting how they could not stand her and how she was a lazy and cheated and they just let her have it, well I walked in because I could hear the yelling next door and the instructor was in shock I think, and I asked the student who had been accused of cheating to leave and the students said "this is not fair!!!!" I believe students only want what is fair. So if someone gets more time, or an easy way out of something the students will speak their minds. Normally that is what is happening when students speak out.
Hi Annie,
This is a good example of how things can fester until they explode. An instructor needs to keep a finger on the pulse of the class to make sure these type of behaviors don't ruin a class.
Something I use are "mystery" (the mystery is the source of the comments) cards. I give the students 3x5 cards upon which they can write any concerns, issues, or needs that they have. Since I don't know the authors of the comments the students feel comfortable sharing what ever is on their minds. I do this on a regular basis as a result I receive ongoing feedback about the difference items of concern. I have found that I don't receive petty complaints but I do receive input that allows me to change course in the class if I need to or focus on a student issue when needed.
You might want to give this strategy a try.
Gary
The first thing that I would do would be to speak with the student. Now if this doesnt work i try to get the student more involved with the class activities. If the student continues to be a distraction dismissal is an option.
Hi Dupre,
The key thing in dealing with a difficult student is to have a sequence of steps that you work through to make sure you are consistent with all of your students. From your comments it appears that you have such a plan.
Gary
These are all very good comments. I would like to ask if there has been any communications with any of the other instructors to see if the behaviour is universal or in some specific course(s) or even with in some specific student cluster. There may be personality clashes involved in addition to the student's home environment that are presenting pressures preventing the student from joining the class "team".
Hi Herschel,
The challenge of working with students that don't become engaged in the class process is trying to find out what is influencing them. I try and use a "soft"inquiry method to find out if there are any additional things I can do ease them into the learning environment.
Another I do is to reform my student work groups in order to reduce any personality conflicts and to create new group personalities.
Gary
As with this situation, I would ask her after class if there is anything that I can do for her to make the class environment better. I would state the good qualities about her and encourage her that respect in the workplace and backtalk is generally not tolerated.
Melissa: I've taught at a junior college where the general procedure with such students was private discussions. (I've had such a difficult student myself!) I explained the difficulty and asked if the student could take steps to help. If the student didn't improve behaviour, the next step was to inform the VP of Student Services, who then set up a meeting between us. If there was no further improvement, then the VP expels the student from the class. This is rare, however.
