Mel Silberman |
Freda Hansburg |
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Ten
Interventions when Students Get Out of Hand
Complimentary Tool for Education
Using active learning techniques tends to minimize the classroom management problems that often plague teachers who rely too heavily on lecture and full-group discussion. If difficulties such as monopolizing, distracting, and withdrawing behaviors still occur, here are some interventions you can use. Some work well with individual students; others work with the entire class.
- Signal nonverbally.
Make eye contact with students or move closer to them when they hold
private conversations, start to fall asleep, or hide from participation.
Press your fingers together (unobtrusively) to signal wordy students
to finish what they are saying. Make a "T" sign with your
fingers to stop unwanted behavior.
- Listen actively. When
students monopolize discussion, go off on a tangent, or argue with you,
interject a summary of their views and then ask others to speak. Or
you can acknowledge the value of their viewpoints or invite them to
discuss their views with you during a break.
- Get your ducks in a row. When
the same students always speak up in class while others hold back, pose
a question or problem and then ask how many people have a response to
it. You should see new hands go up. Call on one of them. The same technique
might work when trying to obtain volunteers for role playing.
- Invoke participation rules.
From time to time, tell students that you would like to use rules such
as these:
- No laughing during role playing.
- Only students who have note spoken as yet can participate.
- Build on each other's ideas.
- Speak for yourself, not for others
- Use good-natured humor.
One way to deflect difficult behavior is to use humor with students.
Be careful, however, not to be sarcastic or patronizing. Gently protest
the harassment (e.g., "Enough, enough for one day!"). Humorously,
put yourself down instead of the students (e.g., "I guess I deserved
this.")
- Connect on a personal level.
Whether the problem students are hostile or withdrawn, make a point
of getting to know them during breaks. It's unlikely that students will
continue to give you a hard time or remain distant if you've taken an
interest in them.
- Change the method of participation.
Sometimes you can control the damage done by difficult students by inserting
new formats such as using pairs or small groups rather than full-class
activities.
- Ignore mildly negative behaviors.
Pay little or no attention to behaviors that are small nuisances.
Carry on with the class and see if they go away.
- Discuss very negative behaviors in
private. You must call a stop
to behaviors you find detrimental to learning. Firmly request, in private,
a change in behavior of those students who are disruptive. If the entire
class is involved, stop the lesson and explain clearly what you need
from students to conduct the class effectively.
- Don't take personally the difficulties you encounter. Remember that many problem behaviors have nothing to do with you. They are due to personal fears and needs or displaced anger toward someone else. See if you can pick up cues when this is the case and ask whether students can put aside the conditions affecting their positive involvement with the class.
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