Has anyone taught before?
Offline ...And if so, I'm just cusrious:
What did you find to be the most effective way of either correcting students who's primary goal it is to disrupt a class rather than learn from it, or to prevent them from succeeding?
I'm taking an ESL teacher course right now (very challenging, but also incredibly fascinating and somewhat inflating), and having done 6 hours worth of observations (of an eventual total of 20), I've noted that this is a real sticky issue in many cases - and there isn't any course material really dealing with it (we're just being taught how to effectively teach the material).
Just tossing them out (which would be my own first choice) isn't likely to be an option when I get a position somewhere, so I'm just doing some digging ahead of time to find an answer.
(...I know Hamby will likely recommend the Authoritarian Spectre here, but I really don't think that particular field of social science can be readily applied to a captive audience, most of whom are only in the class for 3-ish months or so. I'm very much on the business end of the real, short-term, prisoner's dilemma).
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
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I can only give you a mother's perspective, Kevin, but it may be useful. Generally I think a person acts disruptive in that setting because it's a competitive environment, and that generally the disruptor is trying to deflect their insecurity about their personal ability to compete.
What makes a classroom a complex place for this phenomenon, I believe, is that a classroom facilitates multiple games in parallel. My advice would be to observe the disruptive student for a while and attempt to reason from their behaviour what it is they are trying to compensate for with their disruptive actions. Once you've figured out what that is then you might approach them with some encouragement and reassurance that they do possess the ability to succeed in the area instead of dodging it with distractions.
Despite appearances to the contrary, I believe it is likely that, every student does see every teacher as an authoritative and important figure in their lives and deeply craves their approval.
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What types of disruptions are we talking here? Are they throwing things at other students, sleeping during class, talking to classmates...?
I have never taught as a "teacher" only facilitated workshops in a corporate environment. My planning on how to keep my participants engaged would depend on the subject matter and the group I am working with.
For example, Preventing Sexual Harassment; for a group of newly promoted managers, they have never been through this particular class before and are ready to absorb material and participate. A class of tenured managers that are there only to comply with HR request to renew and review the material is a much more difficult group to keep focused.
The new group WANTS to learn the senior group are there because they are being told they have to. With the latter group the success of the class relies on involving their "experience" to draw them into participation...more of a sharing then an instruction.
ESL class---> what is the main motivation for these people to be in the class? Are they attempting to become citizens? Why are they there?
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Ergh... I want to write a long post and I have to go to work. Actually, the Authoritarian Specter didn't come immediately to mind precisely because it's a captive audience, but now that you've mentioned it, I'm going to think about it and see what comes to mind. I'll post more later.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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I've only taught college students, so I don't have much experience with the kind of disruptive, attention-seeking behaviors you get out of younger kids. I do hang around some younger high school teachers and as far as I can tell, everybody's clueless about this subject and everybody applies a different strategy. As a side note, where are you getting your non-English speakers from? Are Mexicans really up in Canada now?
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--Bertrand Russell
You haven't said how old the students are, and that certainly makes a difference, but regardless of the age, the formula is always the same. This isn't quite a prisoner's dilemma, but it's close. Essentially, the students have a choice to behave or not, and there is a reward for behavior and a disincentive for misbehavior. You've just got to find the balance between positive and negative.
This relates directly to the thread you started a while ago about disciplining children at the grocery store. Children are not stupid, and they definitely weigh their options before deciding how to act. You've got to find meaningful incentives and disincentives, and then find the right balance between the two -- where pretty much all the students will have enough of one or the other that its in their own best interests to behave well.
I believe this is a matter of the philosophy you take into the classroom. Try not to think of it as stopping them from being disruptive. Think of it as providing an environment where they want to be attentive. Rather than focusing on the negative consequences of misbehavior, focus on the benefits of good behavior. In fact, when I've taught younger students in groups, I've found that not even mentioning penalties works best. If there's ever a need to discipline anyone, just do it. Don't threaten first. Just do it whenever necessary, without showing any anger.
Really, dealing with children is no different from dealing with adults. The best way to get people to do something is always to make it in their best interests to do what you want. Make it easy for them to do the right thing, and generally, they will.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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Books about atheism
Age is sort of up the air, really. Anyone from younger children to senior citizens might be in the same classroom.
The disruption I saw wouldbe what I would call 'typical' adolescent disruptive behavior; the students have no interest in taking the class, but are either being forced into it by an authority figure (usually the company they work for, which - as an extra nuisance - also pays for the course for them, meaning that the student has no investment in the class) or are there for an alterior reason (hang-out with a friend taking the course, hit on girls, etc).
Perhaps I'm wrong, but intuitively, just 'making the class interesting' doesn't seem like it would be a viable solution in these circumstances (learning english, especially if you want to learn it, can be fun and interesting. But it'll never hold a candle, IMHO, to the fun of disrupting a lesson and being 'the bad guy/gal' when that's the game you've invented for yourself instead).
I guess what I'm trying to ask is... what stands as a valid disincentive or incentive for this kind of person to get involved in the class rather than simply playing their own game?
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
China and Venezuala mostly, actually (Chinese manufacturing companies and Venezuala oil companies are apparently really big on getting their workers fluent in english).
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Probably true. So, you have to think of a way to lessen the interest level of disrupting class. What is the payoff? Is it getting you riled up, or is it not having to listen to the lecture? Whatever it is, try to think of a way to negate the payoff as much as possible.
Another thing you can do is move away from the traditional lecture altogether. You can try to invent a game that is genuinely interesting, and has benefits for them that they'll really like. If you can do this really well, you can use the students to police themselves. Once you've got their leader into whatever is going on, you win.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I taught ESL in Mexico. However, it was a private school where I could throw the students out. You mention that companies are paying for these courses. Are there penalties for failing the course? I would recommend that class participation be a requirement for a good grade/passing and that disruptive behavior will detract from this portion of the grade. Disruptive and off-track activities need to be interrupted and nipped in the bud as soon as they start, don't give them several seconds to get something going. Interrupt whenever needed.
I found that things like music (delving into a Marilyn Manson song for example
 
grabs and keeps attention. Also, when I would talk about the U.S. and put the lesson in context of how it might be used in life in the U.S. it helped. Hamby is right in that you want to spend more time encouraging good behavior more than clamping down on bad behavior. Find out about your students, what they care about and why. If they see you as a partner in learning who knows more than they do and is trying to help them, you will not have as many problems. Trying to find a balance between friendly helper and authoritarian imparter of knowledge is tricky, but I'm sure you can find a way to do it.
Get away from whatever text you are using as much as you can and keep the class moving. If you are moving around and saying the center of attention, then there is no chance for anyone to start something. Do remember that lots of people learn well via auditory methods and movement based methods rather than the traditional text learning that is usually used.
Congratulations! You can have a lot of fun and learn a lot from this work.
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I worked for Berlitz a few times doing ESL and never found "disruptive students" a problem. The nearest to it was when someone who had little interest or incentive attempted persistently to divert the subject matter to something less boring to them. If it was because they considered they already had a level of English greater than that on offer then it meant that they tended to communicate their ennui in English so it was relatively easy to talk to them and tailor the subject matter to engage them more. If they had no English this was more difficult, but generally possible using their colleagues or classmates as interpreters.
Never a big problem though, nor a frequent one. The majority of ESL students bring enough incentive and enthusiasm of their own to make your job relatively easy in that respect.
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Teaching is a lot like being in prison: kick someone's ass the first day or become someone's bitch.
Not really, but you know what I mean. Just remember: it's much easier to start out as a hardass and slack off than vice versa.