Archive for October, 2009

From time to time, I have a challenging student in my training class. I generally don’t encounter that many in my Versitas classes.  However, earlier this year, I had two students in one class that required extra attention and care.  One student was constantly asking very complex, “stump the teacher” kinds of questions.  The other student was making frequent comments about each topic/task we covered.  Since the class was an Intermediate level, I knew to expect a range of knowledge and abilities.  Dealing with a diverse group of students is something that I am pretty familiar with in the classroom.  These two students, though, provided extra “fun” in my classroom that day.    

Throughout the course of the training day, I used almost all of the tools/tips that I knew of to keep the effect of these students to a minimum.  Since that class, I have told the story to other trainers in order to get their ideas on other ways to deal with students that create disruptions.  I didn’t ask the trainers to complain about the students, but as a learning opportunity to add new tools to my “challenging student” arsenal. 

Here are a few of those tools/tips that I have accumulated over the years.  Usually the tips work best if I spend a few moments at the beginning of the class to set the right expectations.

1. Question Parking Lot:  During my introductory remarks at the beginning of a training session, I tell the students about the “question parking lot” on the board.  When a student asks a question that will take more than a simple answer, I write the question on the board and explain that the question will be answered during a break or at the end of the training session.  That way questions are encouraged but are not disruptive if the questions are too specific/complex.

2. “Thank you” response: Most student comments are very useful and can add so much to a training class.  However, when a student is commenting too much, it can be disruptive to the class.  When I find that I have a student who comments frequently, I usually say “Thank you” and quickly move on to the next item.  I’ve learned not to add anything to what the student has said to fuel the fire for more comments. After a few of these simple thank you’s after the comments, the student often gets the hint. 

3. Direct questions: When I have students who talk or whisper to each other during class, I’ve found that direct questions are a great tool.  When they begin talking to each other, I ask one of them a direct question about the topic we are covering or about how they could use this in their current job position. This technique draws them back into the class and often helps immediately with the talking.

4. Cell phone demonstration:  At the beginning of each class, I make a point of going over and turning my cell phone to quiet mode right after the opening remarks in the class.  Most of the times I’ve already turned it to quiet mode, but go through the motions so that students see me doing it.  That starts a chain reaction as I watch many other students checking their phones. 

I thought this blog entry would be a great way to solicit other ideas.  Feel free to reply in the comments section with your ideas for how you make your training classes (or meetings) run smoothly.