A letter to Dear Abby yesterday comes from a college student in San Francisco who writes complaining about a disruptive classmate:
"A woman I have many classes with is making class time unbearable. She frequently interrupts the instructor...laughs very loudly at things that are not remotely funny...she's rude and uncalled-for in her critique... The student goes on to say, "Even our instructors are frustrated...."
Abby's advice was that the student should go with other students to the instructors and "explain how disruptive and distracting the woman's behavior has been."
My question is, why haven't the instructors addressed the behaviors themselves? Don't they see how disruptive it is? I understand that it can be a difficult conversation to have but it is not fair to all those students that are in your classroom to learn. By discussing and modeling appropriate social behavior, we are giving our students a skill that is as valuable in their careers (and lives) as any math, science, or business content.
Unfortunately sometimes instructors are so glad for the effusive feedback in the form of questions and commenting that they do not attune to the other student body language. When I think I have a student that is being overly zealous in participation to the point of shutting out the others, I watch what happens when that person raises their hand. If the body language of the others in the room is a group sigh sort of movement, then I talk to the person privately. This year, I told the young man to keep a list of questions so that he can group them together so that we do not interrupt the flow of the class. It is also an excellent practice to have students post their questions from today's lessons. Faced with such a mechanism, often the overly verbose person will pipe down.
It is the instructor's job to tune into the body language of their students. Period. I agree with you totally!
Great blog!
Posted by: Vicki Davis | June 29, 2006 at 04:59 PM
Sometimes the difficulty though is when to address the behavior. Immediate feedback concerning the student acting up in class might be as effective as talking to the student privately. The other students need to that you, the instructor, are taking control and are designating what you consider to be inappropriate behavior.
Posted by: Pamela Chapman | June 30, 2006 at 08:42 AM