social behaviors
recently our school had a couple of verbal altercations amongst students and with educators. when students come in with certain expectations and even high standards from the school and don't receive them they do get frustrated and vent out either verbally or sometimes even physcially. it is understood that educators must be the motivating factor for their education, but how far must one go in motivating students who may have already have a mindset of not following through or even following rules? i am enthusiastic about my decision to educate in a career college, but must i babysit constantly? i do become frustrated myself in that i question sometimes if i want to continue. any other ideas on how to be a better motivator for my students and the student body as a whole?
Hi Gilbert,
Tough question and one that is hard to answer without some additional details regarding the situation.
One thing that must exist is that the school have high standards as you have indicated they do. These high standards are based upon the requirements of the field. They have to be maintained if the students are going to be successful upon graduation.
The second point motivation of students. As long as the requirements are realistic and clearly outlined for the students, then the standard has been set. The students have to work to achieve these knowledge and skill areas. If they do not due to poor attendance or missing project work then they do not pass the course(s). The motivation points that can come into play are those small success areas along the way. Through the use of instructional supports the students can complete one part of a project, then another part, etc. until the major project or skill area is complete. With each completed segment the students can see how they are making progress in their career training.
You might want to bring someone in from the field to talk with the students about requirements in the "real world". The person could talk about following rules, for example and what happens if they are not followed. This way the students could see that the rules that have been set up for the class are based upon "real world" requirements and not just because you want to make their life hard.
Help them to see transference of knowledge and skills to the next steps in their lives if at all possible.
I will be glad to talk with you more about this if I can be of any further help.
Gary
My question is, at what point do the students have to take some responsibility for their actions? Verbal altercations, disruptive students, failure to follow the rules...these are basic fundamentals that must be met in order to function as a productive member of society. I understand that we must validate frustrations of the students but are we doing them a disservice by not making them accountable?
Hi Catherine,
I think we make them accountable from the very beginning of their training. They have volunteered to enroll in a career college for specific training in order to have a career. In preparing for that career they must develop skills that will enable them to communicate and work with fellow employees and customers/patients.
Instructors need to model proper behavior and then outline expectations for the students. If they do not live up to the expectations or have behaviors that are destructive to the general welfare of the class then they need to be removed for the good of everyone.
To allow the behaviors to continue will only serve to make the other students unhappy and will result in other students dropping out and having a poor opinion of the college.
Gary
Hi Catherine,
When I address a class for the first time, I find that asking them what they expect to get out of the class helps set the tone for the rest of the class.
Once that is established, I give them examples of behaviours that will help them succeed as well as examples that will give negative results in the field.
I let them know what is and is not tolerated in the field and run my class based upon those perameters.
I let them know in no uncertian words that failure of following the rules will lead to failure in the field. I follow this with actual examples of people that I have personally worked with, and explain what happened to them as a result.
If this does not work, I ask them, if it was their mother, father, sister, brother, would they treat them like this?
I deal with students coming from one of the worst public school systems in the country. In addition to behavior problems, they have learning problems. Many of them say they are bored and don't give an honest effort to learn. What can I do since it seems like I spend half of my time being a disciplinarian and baby sitter?
Hi Michael,
You raise a question that reflects a common concern expressed by a number of instructors. A key point seems to be missing in the career planning for these students. Post secondary training is voluntary. These students select, sign up and pay for this college experience. Many 18-21 year old students forget that this is not high school. They are there for a reason. You need to work with your front office and student services personnel to help them to prepare the students for their new life experiences. Also to reinforce to the students that their success is dependent on them and their efforts. As you already know you have to set the tone for the management of the class and how the policies of the class will be implemented. You can break the students into small groups and challenge the groups to solve problems or work on case studies. Career colleges are really focused on student retention and that is a good thing, but if the students are not going to apply themselves or disrupt the class then they should be removed from the class for the good of the other students. By setting a standard of student investment in student success you will be able to instruct the students that want to be there and learn. For the students with learning challenges you can provide instructional supports that will help them with their note taking and student skills.
Gary
This is something I have been struggling with this quarter as well, as I have a student who exhibits unusual behavior in the classroom. The best way I can explain it is that they don't have a filter; whatever they think they also say out loud. Much of what they say has no correlation whatsoever to the curriculum. I did ask this student to meet with me after class so we could discuss the issue, and there has been some improvement since then. I asked them to make sure they were not speaking over anyone else, and to think about whether or not what they are saying is relevant to the curriculum before they contribute. While the next few classes were better, the problem seems to be resurfacing. The really frustrating part is that when I spoke to them they knew before I said anything what I wanted to speak about, but were upset because they felt they were being "disciplined" for their behavior again. I tried to make it clear that I wasn't discipling them, rather setting my expectations for them in the classroom. It seems to me that they were well aware of the problem, as they knew what it was before I said it and they had been spoken to about it before. I'm not sure what to do at this point; it seems it's either let them participate by taking over until I stop them or they don't partcipate at all. Any suggestions?
Hi Michelle,
This is a common problem for instructors. You have done all the right things to date. You are at a point now where you need to let the students know what you will and won't tolerate in terms of their behavior. They are trying to displace their behavior from themselves to you. As professionals in training they need to develop the soft skills needed to work with others. Part of the learning process is proper conduct.
You can work on developing a contract with them concerning their behavior. If they don't adhere then they may need to be removed from the class. I know this is harsh but if they are allowed to take control of the class then they are depriving the other students of a quality education.
Gary
