When Students Challenge the Insttuctor
In the Culinary field; sometimes we gat student who try to undermined the instructors; and go around the room telling other students to do things differently. What should we do?
Hi Nagib,
Never let a student undermine you! Put a stop to this madness by having a firm conversation with the student and documenting the conversation. Get the DOE involved if there is a need.
Patricia
Unfortunately there is not much an instructor can do. Students like that will not change because theirs is a learned behavior from somewhere in their upbringing. They are incredibly insecure and need those with less experience to think of them as being wonderful. I tell the students I am the one you pay to learn from but then again the choice is your. Hopefully you'll make the right one.
One way to stop this would be to give the students a "test" by having them demostate the proper way to do something in the lab or work area. If the students see that they will lose points for following a bad example they may stop paying attention to the student that is challenging your methods.
In the nursing clinical that I am an instructor in we have had discussions on the correct way to do a particular skill. When a student is adament in a particular way in preforming the skill, I bring it up for a discussion to the group (5-8 students) and encourage their critical thinking skills to figure out if the skill can be preformed different ways safely and the rationale behind it. This also helps when the instructors teach a skill one way and the nurse preceptors do the skill another way.
Hi Colleen,
This is a great way to get students to think out of the box. I understand that there are different ways to do skills in the medical field just as they are in the computer field.
Patricia
On those occasions when this has occured, I've asked the student where they "learned" this from. Their answer typically involves either some other " unreliable source" or a prior expierence from someone they know personally. Either way, in trying to up-stage the instructor, when questioned correctly has disarmed them from continuing their efforts.
Hi Tony,
I can certainly see how this works! I have a private conversation with the students to let them know that I need them to put more effort into becoming a better student instead of trying to prove me wrong, and then I give specific example(s) of this. This needs to be taken care of quickly.
Patricia
Tony, I agree that this is very disheartening. I had a student try this on my in a computer class. The plan was to discredit me by pointing out that I did not know what I was doing. I explained that there are often more than one way to do something and yet get the same results. Neither way is wrong, just different. I had her follow my instructions to prove the point.
