Six Causes of Resistance to Learning

We continue our theme of classroom management by offering six causes of resistance to learning. The causes may offer insight into a student whose classroom behavior is inappropriate.

The entire article, brought to us by Inside the School Update, can be read by clicking here. In brief, the six causes are:

• Poor self image as a learner.
• Fear of the unknown.
• Disjunction between learning and teaching styles.
• Apparent irrelevance of the learning activity.
• Inappropriate level of required learning.
• Students' dislike of the instructor.

Getting Mad in the Classroom

Sometimes things just don’t go right in the classroom. If you find that you becoming more and more angry and you need to express it, consider the following strategies.*

• Do not use a lot of emotional language.


• Do not throw things.


• Do not make exaggerations about the situation.


• Do not be rude or condescending.


• Do describe how student behavior affects you and what it causes you to do and to think.


• Propose some alternatives


• Identify student behaviors that are more appropriate and let them know.


• If possible, let the intense wave of emotions pass before you respond.


• Control your emotions rather than let them control you.
  

* McPherson, M.B., Kearney, P., and Plax, T.G. (2003). "The Dark Side of Instruction: Teacher Anger as Classroom Norm Violations." Journal of Applied Communication Research, 31 (1), 76-90.

Sharing the Sidebar

Annoyed by the whispered conversations that occur between two students during the lecture/discussion/Q&A?

For me, the annoyance derives not from being the center of attention, but rather that the conversation causes the chatting people to miss part of the class activity while interfering with their neighbors’ participation. No matter how I would intervene in the distracting behavior, I would feel awkward, sometimes like I had a major ego problem, sometimes creating a me-against-them situation, etc.

A nifty solution to this vexing problem was demonstrated when I recently attended a conference held on campus. The key note speaker was explaining how sharing information helped make the class a more rewarding experience. He pointed out that whispered conversations, which he called a "sidebar,” between two individuals were also a rich source of information that should be shared with the class. Being a valuable source, the "sidebar" group would be required to share their conversation with the class.

The first time two individuals put their heads together in a “sidebar,” the speaker stopped his discussion and ask the whisperers to share their “sidebar.” It was the last time anyone in the room had a whispered conversation!

Case Study in Classroom Management Issues Part 1 of 2

An Instructor wrote:

It’s always a challenge to balance the different levels of computer skills of my students, but yesterday was in a class by itself (no pun intended). There were three students (out of 16!) who really didn’t have the basic computer skills necessary to be in this level class, but one student was truly having difficulty.

At the first break she told me “I’m a really slow typist” but I knew that wasn’t the whole story. At the second break she admitted that she’d been in a car accident and that now she reported she had trouble learning. When I suggested that she re-take the class at a later date once she’d had a little more experience with the software she said that she is using the software at her current job and that her boss insisted she take this class, that she had paid for the class and she wasn’t about to leave.

Check back next week to learn what the instructor did. Every instructor faces this. Share your thoughts by commenting.