Dealing with challenging classroom situations

Situation:

• Student makes provocative or insulting remarks during discussion.

Issues to consider

• Do you have ground rules/a class contract?
• How can you continue to give the argumentative student a voice while preventing them from promoting their negativity or abusing other students?
• Is the student obviously out of control or off balance?
• Does the class discussion get too heated and unpleasant?

Proposed helpful strategies

• If you teach a course that has any potential for the discussion of strongly held opinions, discuss this potential in the first week of class and what stance you want to take on it .(E.g. “The question of the validity of evolution as a theory is outside the scope of our discussion in this course. The course is based on the premise that evolution is true and you will need to explain course content accordingly whether you personally believe in evolution or not.”)
• If you do have ground rules, it’s time to refer to it and ask students to respect them. If no, maybe it is a good opportunity to discuss the necessity of co-creating ground rules with your class.
• Look for a way to pull back from the emotion of the comment. (E.g. “This is a very emotional issue for many people. But let’s try to phrase things as objectively as possible. Are you wanting to make the point that…?” Or “It’s true some people feel this way, but many others don’t. Let’s step back and look at the history and the reasons why there is disagreement.”)
• If the student seems truly out of control, propose him to go outside for a while and return later.

Situation:

• One student dominates the discussion.

Issues to consider

• How can you encourage this student to modify his/her attitude without discouraging the rest of the students?

Proposed helpful strategies

• Talk to the student privately and thank him/her for their contributions to the class. Tell him/her you would like others to also contribute so you would like this student to hold off for a little. Possible suggestions for this student could be to: Wait until you call on him/her; after speaking once, wait until at least two or three other people have spoken before speaking again.
• Ask questions to certain areas of the class, “Can someone from the front/middle/back row tell me…”

Situation:

• Disruptive behavior: Students whispering/ talking in class or playing with their cell phones or students coming in late.

Issues to consider

• How disruptive is the behavior?
• Is it bothering you?
• Is it annoying to other students?
• How frequent and prolonged is the behavior?
• What are the underlying causes?

Proposed helpful strategies

• Focus on the underlying causes. Are students talking because they have questions, you’re not making time to answer? Is there enough challenge and variety in your course to keep students interested? Are students late in other classes? Do they behave similarly with other teachers?
• Include cell-phones policies in your “classroom’s contract” – set some ground rules with all and for all.
• If students are talking, pause and stay silent until they stop.
• Ask talking students if they have any question.
• If students talk habitually in class or are often late (e.g. after the break), talk to them individually about it.
• Encourage class participation and develop activities that will keep students engaged in an enjoyable way.

Tips adapted from: University of Washington School of Social Work. (2011). Dealing with difficult classroom situations.

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