Classroom Management at FETAC/PLC Level

Miss Lockhart

I'm very interested to hear other tutors' opinions and experiences on this topic - their own personal approach and their centre's/college's approach. Obviously your personal approach will be influenced by your college's policies and guidelines.

Do you ever have problems with students in class? I'm thinking mostly about punctuality and talking, but happy to hear any discussion of other issues.

(Obviously making your lessons as interesting and engaging as possible will reduce talking and students not being engaged. That goes without saying.)

Do you simply ask talkers to stop? Would you ask them to leave? How do you deal with persistent lateness? What approach do you find successful with a student who won't engage in group work or activities?

I ask all this because I am still trying to find the best approach to teaching at PLC level. In my opinon my centre is far too lax on the issue of punctuality and we are not really "allowed" do anything about it. It wrecks my head and my fellow tutors also hate it. I also think we, as a centre, are too lenient on disrespectful behaviour by students. It seems to be dismissed because most students are "only young" yet can't be dealt with as it would in a second level class (and that's fair enough) because they are not children. I wondering how other tutors find the right balance.

looksee

Start the year by explaining that you are going to treat it as a place of work, rather than a school atmosphere. Treat them as adults. You are always going to get talkers (I have been in staff meetings where some staff will insist on talking when they are supposed to be listening!) but get the class on-side by getting them to realise that while people are talking the rest of the class is being deprived of teaching time.

It is possible to get to the stage where other members of the class will tell people to be quiet or stop messing. If people are talking just stop and look at them until they realise that everyone is waiting for them to be quiet. When they stop, thank them and carry on.

Mostly though, they are adults, treat them as adults. Talk to them in a reasonable, non-confrontational, non-aggressive way. Give them a bit of lee-way for humour, then get back on track. Never doubt that you are in charge.

I have found PLC students to be some of the nicest people to deal with.

Never ask or tell someone to do something that you cannot enforce. So if you do tell someone to leave the room, be pretty confident they will go, or you will end up losing authority. It is not something I recommend. In a way if you ask someone to leave you have already lost control of the situation, there would have to be a good reason.

If someone comes in late ignore them (to avoid disturbing the lesson) unless they are making a commotion. Do not go back over stuff that they have missed, do not make special accommodation for them unless they come to you and apologise and have a good excuse. If they have missed a test or a hand out, tough. Start the class within a few minutes of start time, make sure you are always on time yourself. Keep a note of who is late/absent etc in your own (personal) class register to use for feedback.

Miss Lockhart

Thanks looksee.

Just to note, I am not having any major problems with poor behaviour in my classes - but as you said, there will always be talkers in any group situation. I'm merely looking at how others have successfully dealt with these issues.

Yes, the others in the class will often shush the talker but I feel that I should really do that first - not rely on my other students to deal with the issue.

I always treat my students as adults (even though many of them are actually not!). I suppose I'm just a little disappointed at times that they don't all act like adults.

looksee wrote: »

Talk to them in a reasonable, non-confrontational, non-aggressive way. Give them a bit of lee-way for humour, then get back on track. Never doubt that you are in charge.

This is how I deal with all my students, adults or not.

looksee wrote: »

Never ask or tell someone to do something that you cannot enforce. So if you do tell someone to leave the room, be pretty confident they will go, or you will end up losing authority. It is not something I recommend. In a way if you ask someone to leave you have already lost control of the situation, there would have to be a good reason.

I have never asked anybody to leave but other tutors have when a couple of people have persisted in talking after being asked to stop repeatedly.

I have also seen this done in university. Not in a confrontational manner, but in a "ladies, if you're not interested in the lesson then feel free to leave, thanks" sort of way.

looksee wrote: »

If someone comes in late ignore them (to avoid disturbing the lesson) unless they are making a commotion. Do not go back over stuff that they have missed, do not make special accommodation for them unless they come to you and apologise and have a good excuse. If they have missed a test or a hand out, tough. Start the class within a few minutes of start time, make sure you are always on time yourself. Keep a note of who is late/absent etc in your own (personal) class register to use for feedback.

I would always ignore late-comers. Unfortunately, this is where the disrespect comes in. Very often, the people who are late (by up to half an hour) for every class are the same people who walk in talking and laughing, interupt you to get notes, interupt to ask what you are doing, are late for skill demonstrations and expect you to start over etc.

This is a problem for all staff members with the same people.

A lot of these issues, I think, stem from the fact that I am teaching a compulsory and very technical module to a majority of people who think it is irrelevant for their course. They are only interested in one aspect of their course and not this module - even though it is compulsory. Many are also, imo, not adequately prepared for this subject at this level - and yes, I have brought this up at management level many times regarding our choice of applicants.