This week, I want us all to think even more about different classroom management techniques, remembering that "Classroom management is a planned effort on the part of the teacher to make the classroom a comfortable place for students to learn" (Wesner 1999). In adult classrooms, what we do and how we handle different situations is likely to be quite different from how we'd handle things with younger learners. In this blog assignment, you'll have the opportunity to think specifically about classroom management with adults learners.
You will have two different aspects to your post:
First, go here to read about adults as learners.
Second, go here to look at some tips on how to handle a number of different difficult situations in a classroom.
Choose one of the situations from the second link that is relevant for you and your own teaching, and discuss (a) an additional way to handle such things, (b) an enlightening suggestion that the page gives, or (c) a similar situation in which one of those techniques worked (or didn't work). Make sure to answer in light of what you read about adult learners, and include discussion of how possible techniques may not be appropriate for some age levels, cultural situations, etc.
Your answer should be posted as a comment to this post, and should be at least 2 paragraphs long.
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ReplyDeleteThe only difficult situation I have with my students is poor participation and not having participants answering my questions. I have tried rephrasing my questions and throwing some humor to encourage my students to answer my questions but with not much success. I have noticed ( and has been brought to my attention) that what I have been doing wrong is that I do not allow time for students to prepare their answers, especially that I am teaching beginners ‘level. I have been using the 10 seconds silence time after I ask the question and my students are more willing to participate since they know that I will wait for an answer instead of just answering it myself or revising all over again to get an answer.
ReplyDeleteI have also been dealing with late comers issue but I would not say that it constitutes a problematic situation for me. I just go through what has been covered so that I can get them up to speed with the rest of the class.
One of the difficult situations described that intrigued me was the one entitled “Students will not participate or answer your questions.” After doing some self reflection I found that I often used their suggestion of answering the question myself and then posing the question to the class once again, just to make sure that everyone heard and realizes how important that particular point may be. However, when it comes to adult learners I would worry that a lack of responses might mean that I am not focusing on their goals or perhaps the class doesn’t feel relevant to them at that particular point.
ReplyDeleteThe first article suggests that in adult learner classrooms it’s important to keep the class focused on their interests and make sure that what is being taught has a practical and relevant purpose to their lives. As such, I would attempt some of the other things on the list, especially the first two suggestions “1. Rephrase the question. 2. Wait ten seconds. The silence will usually encourage someone to respond.” But then if these fail too, I might just revert back to answering the question myself, but instead of then throwing the same question back to them as I often did with children, I might skip that part and just move right into how that topic is relevant to their lives. At this point I would follow up with a question of whether or not they agree that it is a relevant topic and ask the students to explain why or why not. This way I’m not just seeking an answer, especially since I already gave it, instead I’m seeking feedback as to whether or not what I’m teaching is a good topic and whether or not they are comprehending the current topic. Theoretically, if they don’t understand the topic then they won’t be able to give an explanation about its relevancy to their life.
My suggestion of asking the class if the current topic is relevant in order to induce some participation after a bout of silence, would probably only work with adult and young adult learners. I would be skeptical to try this with High School Freshman or younger age groups because they may not be mature enough yet to give extra feedback to life relevancy. Often with younger groups it’s important to point out why certain teaching topics are important and how they play a role in real life, but not necessarily expect them to have more suggestions of life relevancy for those topics. In fact they may take the opportunity to say that it’s not relevant and try to argue their way out of learning the topic because unfortunately kids are not always “autonomous and self-directed.”
I have had a problem recently with students talking during other students presentations. This is happening with only a few, specific students.
ReplyDeleteAs the league.org discussion indicated, adult learners require some special consideration and bring a different perspective to learning than non-adults. My class consists of 18 Hispanic women with estimated ages of 25-55 years. They are all there because they want to learn English – no one forces them to attend. In fact, some of them have to make special arrangements to be there. I have a great deal of respect for them. I try to treat them as equals. I learned early on that getting their perspective on what to cover in class is very useful for a great many reasons. I have worked with each one on setting up specific goals and we monitor progress.
There are some cultural implications of students talking while another student is presenting. I’m not convinced that it is considered rude by them. I have tried various tactics. First time for a student, I try to ignore it. Next, I will go stand near their desks in the hopes that this will discourage them. On one particular occasion, I noted that one of my “star” students continued to talk to her partner during the presentations of others. I tried all tactics I knew. Then, I realized the pair was trying to continue their work. Goal achievement had taken over. They wanted to turn in another star performance so they kept working. My tactic – next time I called on that team first. It worked!
One really can’t react to all difficult situations with a quick fix. I believe that I have built enough rapport with my students to take them aside after class if necessary. That strategy, of course, requires weeks/months of pre-work in the mutual respect area.
It seems as if a common problem for all of us here is getting the students to answer questions; and this, when you get down to it, is is all about speaking. For my group of beginners, speaking is a real challenge. They have to first understand what I am asking, then find the right words, say them correctly, and produce something the teacher will understand. That can be a daunting task, depending on the skill level of your adults. Most of my learners have not completed grade school, and none of them speak much English outside of class. But the are self-directed, relevancy oriented, and well behaved. My task is to get them speaking.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I am trying to create speaking activities around every lesson task. Warm-ups are oral reviews of items from previous lessons. Today I started out having them pronounce a list of verbs they had formed in the past,and tell me what sound they heard at the end - t, d, or id. That took some hard work, but after about 15 minutes, they were doing it quicker and with more accuracy. The core activity was a role play making a doctor's appointment. We wound up describing the pharmacy, and talking about what's on prescription labels. They were pretty savvy about that, and - wonder of wonders - were very forthcoming about answering my questions on what you should and should not do when taking medications.
Students talking amongst themselves during class is a common situation related to adult learners. Some of the adult students may just be disrespectful, while others may be even unaware of the classroom culture because of the lack of much formal education and may not realize that it's inappropriate to talk while the teacher is talking. I have had that happened in my adult classes, and I know that it can be very distracting not just for the instructor, but for the fellow students as well who actually have a goal in mind to learn something.
ReplyDeleteThe ideas offered on the website to solve that issue are the ones that I have used in the past: when I had a teaching assistant in the class, she would address that issue by coming up to the students quietly, or by sitting closer to the 'talkers'; that was very helpful. But having a benefit of another teacher in the class did not happen to me very often, so, of course, I tried other ways of dealing with the issue, such as respectfully addressing the talkers directly, giving the reason why it's not time to talk at the moment as there are things that need to be covered and there is no time for unrelated to the subject discussions (providing a rational is useful for adult learners as the first web-site suggested). Other things that I tried and that are not mentioned on the website are: establishing the rules from the very beginning and stating them in the syllabus. Here is what I put in my syllabus and it actually seemed to help:
•This course is based on respect – respect for the instructor, fellow students and learning environment. Excessive talking during lecture or student discussion is unacceptable. Those willing to commit their time and energy to the development of this course deserve everyone’s undivided attention.
Another way to address these things if they are occurring over and over again is to ask the student to stay after class, so the teacher can talk with the student one-on-one. In such case, if the instructor lets student know in a respectful manner that she understands that the student may have no other time to discuss their personal issues, but during class it is not fair to other students who are here to learn and cannot focus because of chattering.
In the class that I teach, which is full of Hispanic adults, I have few if any problems with people talking out of turn or while others are talking. In the past, this may have been because I did a lot of the talking. More recently, however, the students have been participating more as we do beyond-the-book drills and exercises.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I do have to deal with, covered by the "Resolving Difficult Situations" content, is lateness and irregular attendance. The article suggests that the instructor should resist the temptation to summarize the class so far for the latecomer. I do agree with this, and I think I follow that practice pretty consistently. We don't start exactly at the minute of the class stated start time, giving a chance for a maximum number of people to show up, and I think this helps. Students tend to stay through the end of class, so early departure is not really a problem. We are fortunate that our classroom has two entrances, so someone can leave early (and at times, a student will step outside to take a phone call) without causing much disturbance.
More troubling, however, is irregular attendance. As the course is community-based and does not cost the students any money (books are provided for free) and really is just "show up and learn," students do not lose anything - other than knowledge - by not attending. Thus, from week to week, students miss class and I never know who will show up and who will not. I do not have control over their attendance, and the classes meet twice a week (but I teach once a week): a student may be showing up on the other night, just missing my session that week.
I may need to tell the students that I am available for questions before or after class, if they want to work on anything that they missed. Also, I think I will recommend that the organization (North Dallas Shared Ministries) buy books that come with CDs, so that students can practice pronunciation outside class. There is only so much that one can do in this situation, however: class breaks up pretty quickly when the end time comes around, as students get picked up by their rides and so forth. In that respect, helping students outside class hours is more viable for younger students in a school setting, I think.
I recently asked students what work they are able to do outside class. Some people expressed the circumstance that their children or other native speakers available to them are not patient enough to help them with their English. These students are grateful that they have a forum for practicing their English with someone who helps them with their particular needs.
The only real problem I have is when my student answers incorrectly or they answered correctly by a lucky guess. Also they claim they know how to use the lesson topic but I'm not really sure they do.
ReplyDeleteI try to use each incorrect answer as a learning opportunity as the tip article claims but I don't tell them the correct answer explicitly. I try to get my student to explain to me why their answer is incorrect and then have them find the right answer and explain the rule to me. This kind of reflects the first article's claim that we need to draw out the student's past knowledge and experience.
Another way I have dealt with incorrect answers is to have my student repeat/ write out their incorrect answers (or correct answers, so they really have to pay attention if it's right or wrong). Then I have them explain why they choose that answer and then if they think it is the correct answer.
One of the problems I have in my service learning situation is about a student. His proficiency and accuracy level is very low. Almost all of the other students have hard time understanding him. He does not know how to express his ideas in front of others. He continues talking with ‘uhm’ and ‘uh’ all the time and he is a long talker. The partner who is in pair with him sometimes mocks him about the way he talks. The thing is even I can not understand him when he talks about the topic. From time to time even he is confused what he is trying to say. When I rephrase what he said, his response is simply ‘No’. He is very eager to improve his English and he comes to the class regularly. However the way he talks does not change at all. When he talks, other students do not pay attention and easily get bored. Nobody wants to do a pair work with him.
ReplyDeleteI want to help him however I do not know how. Sometimes I do the pair work with him and try very hard to listen to him not to damage his language ego. However, he just continues on and on about the topic and sometimes off the topic. He does not seem to be bothered by the response from the others in the class. After this semester I am thinking about suggesting him to try a conversation partner. I appreciate the passion he has to improve his English. But I do not know how to help him.
I have chosen “ Students are talking amongst themselves during class” the information given is related to me as how I will handle the situation than rather humiliate the student from talking. If u address the attention respectfully and it still doesn’t work than you could take drastic changes and ask them to stay after school as a punishment. Also, one thing that was enlightening was in the part were students are not participating and how the teacher relate to the students by saying “I guess I wouldn't either at 8 am on a Friday." Also in web checking not all the tame the teacher can have control of what they are viewing on the computer and constantly choking what there are during can be time consuming and you may not be abole to finish your lesson. If teaching an older class the teacher has to kip in mined that the students are self-directed, goal-oriented, relevancy-oriented. When making activates the professor has to teach real world activates to keep their students interested in the class. Also, if the student can fells that the lesson is related to them in a personal level as well as in their jobs than they cense that the class was worth taking. The professor has to have a program that is organized and has clearly defined so the students can accomplish their goal in class. In an adult class the respect in mutual and the processor has to allow the students to voice their opinions freely in class. Some of this ideas are only related to an adult class because if you used them in a high school the students will take over the class.
ReplyDeleteUnlike for the younger learners who mostly are full time students, for adult learners, learning English might be the second job. Because their life outside of the classroom could be quite hectic, they are more likely to fall asleep in class. I, as a student, have seen this happening a lot, so I’d like to think about how to handle this problem.
ReplyDeleteI think students might possibly fall asleep in following situations: when the class is boring, when simply tired, or both. In order not to make them bored, teachers need to make the learning relevant to their lives and needs, as we repeatedly discussed in Cindy’s class. The first article also described that adult students are practical and relevancy-oriented. Thus, if you just continue to explain grammar rules for half an hour, it will be hard for them to resist falling asleep. In addition, we should be careful when arrange activities. In the second link, I found it a useful advice to “build in external and internal focus,” and “use variety.” These must be helpful to hold students’ attention during the class. You can be also flexible enough to change the order of what you’ve prepared for the day. For instance, if you see many students yarning, you may want to start the activity with lots of motions right away, rather than doing it later as you originally planned.
In case few students are spacing our just because they’re physically tired, you can help them by opening the windows for the fresh air, or having a short break and let all students stretch for a moment. I would not call their name out and say, “Are you sleeping? Wake up!” because that can embarrass the students, who need to be treated with respect. If he or she continues to get asleep every class, however, I would talk with the student after the class and ask if he or she feels the class is too easy or too difficult, and find a solution accordingly.
I really liked the advice about how to address one student “taking over” during a session. I can sometimes understand where these students are coming from, because in the past I used to be that “one student” until someone graciously pointed this pattern out to me! Although I have not taught ESL/EFL in a classroom setting as of yet, I can also sympathize with some of my instructors who have had to deal with this situation.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I think this classroom situation directly ties into the final bullet point of the “Accommodating Adult Learners” webpage: "Adults need to be shown respect. Instructors must acknowledge the wealth of experiences that adult participants bring to the classroom. These adults should be treated as equals in experience and knowledge and allowed to voice their opinions freely in class." I think the best teachers are those who can smoothly handle situations like this and transition back on-topic while both respecting the student and their experiences AND maintaining their authority over the classroom. It’s so important that ALL students get a fair chance to participate in class! I agree with that adults should be treated “as equals” as much as possible in the classroom setting, but I think that in reality, some inequality will always exist because the instructor’s authority has to be respected in order for a class to function. I’ll want to create as comfortable a class environment as possible for my students, but I think there will always be some line between them and me.
What the three sample responses given by the webpage to this type of situation have in common is that they a) affirm the student in some way, b) effectively silence the student for at least a moment, c) smoothly redirect the flow of discussion back on-topic , and d) are clear and concise. I could see myself getting flustered if a future student behaved this way in one of my classes, so I’m thankful to be better prepared now by the solutions listed here.
Depending upon the cultural context, the situation may need to be addressed more softly or in a few more words. The solutions listed are certainly appropriate for most adult contexts, but I believe that overenthusiastic younger students may sometimes require additional coaxing and patience. I would not be afraid to take a younger student aside after class to kindly, more fully explain how to better respect his/her fellow students.
I am teaching a one on one class, so I am lucky that I don't have these problems, really. Since it is just the student and I, I think that she feels much more comfortable answering questions and talking with me and there is not really an opportunity for her to fall asleep or surf the internet.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can see that in a traditional classroom setting that many of these would be a problem. I have definitely been in classroom settings as a student where people are surfing the web, talking, texting, sleeping, or whatever. I'll even admit to doing a few of these myself.
I would have to say for me that getting nervous would be my main problem. Some times it is difficult for me because, while I may know the proper way to use a particular part of speech in English, explaining the why and how of it's use to my student can be incredibly tricky. It tends to make me clam up a bit. Luckily, my textbook is incredibly helpful in that aspect and I've managed to explain most things just by providing other examples and allowing my student to hypothesize about what the rule may be.
I do think that if I was working with children though, this method wouldn't work as well. I am lucky that my student is a very intelligent adult who can easily recognize patterns in grammar rules. With younger students, it would be much trickier.
William Mastropieri said
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate this reading on classroom management and behavior.
I have used the advice on humor to put the students in a relaxed mood. I recall when some students tried to "put me on the spot". I would
not show any facial language and say something like "I was wondering when you would ask that question" or "I can't understand you" or "you did'nt seem to be the kind of guy that would say that". Naturallly I would smile when I respond.
But getting back to humor. This kind of thing comes naturally. I can't really recall how I could reach their funny bone. Usually this would relate to their nationality or the difficulty of
todays society or their jobs. As teachers we must reach out to our students. At the same time we should not reach out too far as that may reduce teacher respect.
It would be safe to say that we not be able to reach all students. They may need another ingredient called another "teacher personality and style". I have a studnet who is in the wrong class. I have other Mexican-American students to be her partner. Yes, I think it is important to reach out ot their own past experience.
I did well in Asia because I speak Taiwanese.
I know the culture and can joke about it.
Today, I teach Latinos. This is a new and different ballgame. How to encourage them?
They need jobs. Latinos who speak English will get those jobs. I can remind them about this.
Learning must be fun us. Certaintly for different cultures. This is especially true for Thais and Mexicans-Americans.
We must be English facilitators. I have guided my students on using the internet to navigate games and all sorts of internet activites.
I like the reading that dreams can be achieved
with the help of English. I certaintly hope they are not sleeping and if they are I hope their
dream speak is in English. I like the reading of
"non-traditonal students" All of my students learn. I have an older Korean guy in my class.
I and others have taught him simple aspects of
computer use. He thought this was fun.
Collaboration is used in my class. I want the
late bloomer to learn from his accomplished partner. The accomplished partner is learning to be a teacher! In my class I have Mexicans, Thais, Iranians and Africans. Initially, they did
stick with their oun group. I had them separated.
They did learn from one another. The scale of racial and cultural harmoney can be seen through the lyrics of American English. My students sang
different ethnic songs.