Dealing with Disruptive Students

 In a collaborative and ethical classroom there should be an even and inspiring flow of information between students, between the teacher and the students, and between the students and the teacher.

Visually it looks like this (which I have posted previously):

However, there will be occasions where even with the best laid pedagogical plans and foundations you will have a student (or two) who is determined to disrupt the flow of information and learning and essentially attempt to wrench the classroom out of a collaborative space and into a hierarchical model where everything is questioned with devious ulterior motives. These disruptions may be small such as a brief out-burst of frustration, or alternatively they can be a more sustained effort to find problems with all activities, comments, or unfortunately they can degrade into a type of verbal bullying in attempt to silence classmates or the teacher.

In my years of teaching the main motivation for students who willfully disrupt the classroom space is that they have underlying issues with authority (which they still see present because of nomenclature alone) and if the teacher can be undermined they envision a sort of anarchy-filled, "Lord of the Flies" classroom where everyone will receive an A. Thus, even in a collaborative classroom where the teacher guides their students from the side, the mere fact that they are called "teacher/instructor/professor" and are ultimately responsible for the grading of assignments in the classroom, re-inscribes hierarchies that collaborative classrooms are meant to erase. It is an imperfect system to be sure, but one that can be addressed.

A disrupted classroom can visually be interpreted as such:

So the question is, how does a teacher/instructor/professor address disruptive behavior and work with the student to re-establish the collaborative and ethical classroom. My strategy usually involves humour. If you can get your students to laugh, and remain light-hearted, the chances of the classroom space spiraling into something unwanted decreases. If you demonstrate anger, fear, or any other sort of outwardly tenuous emotion, your students will pick up on that and it could exacerbate the situation. Humour has worked for me in the past, but it is not the only approach. You can talk to the student outside of the classroom space, address the hidden (or not so hidden) issues that they may have, either via email or in person (you will be able to best determine the approach for each particular student). There are of course many other ways to address this issue and I am hoping you will share yours below.

In the end there will always be students who attempt to call you out in front of their peers, questioning knowledge, questioning grading practices, questioning assignments. You may even have students who attempt to trip you up on the smallest of things, for example looking up every word you write on the whiteboard in an attempt to find you have misspelled a word and thus can use that as a outward demonstration of weakness or lack of knowledge . You may be laughing at this point, but I assure you that such situations do happen.

The key is in how you choose to address and use this disruption as a teachable moment, for that is exactly what it is. Disruptive students can be a challenge but they are part of the teaching and learning process. In fact once you have a particular strategy that works for your disruptive students you can add that to your tool-belt of pedagogical skills.

Disruptions can inspire fear in even the most seasoned teachers. However, it is a challenge that we should all embrace as a chance to learn.

Do you have disruptive student strategies that you wish to share? Please leave a comment below. It would be nice to workshop and share ideas.