Adult Students
What have you found to be the most affect response to tardiness to class and students that sleep/disrupt class? Being a younger instructor I have found these to be some of the more difficult task to correct among adult students. I would apreciate any advice and look forward to hearing different stragies.
Thank you for your time.
I first try to find out if there are any barriers to their lack of attention. I try not to "call out" any student individually by explaining how important it is to not miss any class time, either being late, leaving early, or sleeping, because their understanding of the concepts will be deficient, which translates to poor performance on assessments. This is discussed on Day 1 and reinforced with the student individually at remediation appts., if that is the case. I also make a note of this occurence on any letters of concern that are sent to students if their performance on assessments are below a certain level. This has actually backed me up during a parent-student-faculty-dean conference, even though the student denied it, the occurences were recorded as they happened.
Since were in the age of phone the attention sapn of students can be challenging.I've had to take phones in the past to insure the focus is on their lessons.
I am happy that you got valuable information from this professional development on teaching, Brady, though considering the months between our responses, you may never see this, still I say: Bravo, to a young developing teacher. Students certainly need you and your growth toward expertise in your disciplone. Thanks.
I have found that barriers are often the cause for these behaviors. For example child care isssues, family obligations, work, or unhealthy personal choices. When I address the barriers I see more change than when those barriers are ignored.
