Handling lying students & self-absorbed colleagues?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread a reader asks:

This semester my freshmen philosophy class was the worst I’ve ever had in almost a decade. The main reason for this was the conduct of several students, who enrolled in groups (to be together in class as friends), and spent most of their time in class laughing at me, sneering, hardly interacting with other students and me. Several of them asked for extensions providing very unrealistic excuses, which however I accepted in the majority of cases. I did my best to teach in that class, to be patient and flexible so that they would interrupt the laughing and pay attention. I never singled out any of them in front of the class, and most of the time I even pretended not to notice. I talked in private to one of them to encourage him to do better in class (since he would never do the reading for the day). Now on the teaching evaluations they said that I picked on some students, that I did cold calling, and that I was passive aggressive. Aside from the discomfort of reading these harsh comments when I was being so patient even when their behavior was hurting me, how do people deal with students who clearly fail to respect you in class, and then claim you were the one who didn’t respect them?

Also, how do you deal with colleagues who can only speak to you of how impressive they are as teachers, how they transfix students with their teaching, when you experience bullying in the classroom? Full disclosure: this is not the post of someone playing the victim card to avoid dealing with her responsibility as a teacher. I know that I could do better but in that class students never gave me even a chance to be taken seriously. However I tried, including talking to them privately or encouraging them to see me in office hours, or by offering group activities, their attitude to me stayed the same.

Yikes, I'm sorry the OP has been dealing with this. I wouldn't be surprised at all if some (and perhaps a lot) of this may be due to gender dynamics, as at least anecdotally I've heard from women faculty that students can be a lot more willing to challenge their authority--and similar dynamics can play out among faculty. I've had rough classes and some troublesome students over the years, but nothing like the sound of this. So, I'm not sure I'm the best person to offer helpful tips. It might be better to hear from faculty who've faced similar situations.

Do any readers have any helpful tips, insights, or experiences to share?

Comments

[Same issue]

That classroom experience sounds awful. Sorry you had to go through that! I am a woman and have had some similar experiences. In my experience it is best to address this sort of student behavior as early as possible in the term and as often as necessary. But I always frame it as me carrying out my responsibility to make sure my classroom is a learning-conducive environment, since the students' behavior could distract other students. I don't really talk about how disrespectful the behavior is to me because that gives the students the opportunity to construe what is happening as an interpersonal conflict between them and me, which could escalate things. So the first time I hear students talking while I'm teaching, I just say, "Everyone please quiet down" and then if it continues "I'm still hearing some talking. It's important to keep the classroom quiet so that everyone can hear." If they still didn't stop, I would walk right up to them and make eye contact to ask them to be quiet. It's uncomfortable, but I do see it as part of my responsibility with respect to the learning-conducive environment issue. And if there's a repeated issue with talking from the same students, it's absolutely appropriate to email each of those students asking them to stop talking during class and inviting them to express concerns to you in some other way. You could also do anonymous midterm evaluations, if you aren't already doing that, to give students an appropriate and anonymous place to offer feedback, which you could then respond to in a conversation with the whole class.

Good luck! This has been a recurrent and frustrating issue for me. Teaching is challenging enough even without this sort of thing!

[students]

I'm sorry you had to deal with this. This past year I had some of the worst students I've ever had academically. Behavioral issues are a whole other can of worms though and particularly challenging to deal with. I try to set clear guidelines for classroom protocol on day one, with explicit language in the syllabus backed up by clear procedures if students violate them. Here's the way to sell this to them: if students are behaving in the way that you describe, then that negatively affects the learning environment for everyone in the class, which is simply unacceptable. Personally, I would have singled them out in front of the class in a very clear manner, publicly issuing them a warning. I also sometimes keep students after class just to drive the point home. I would also not ignore it, as that signals to them that they can continue behaving in that way. I am, btw, a very friendly instructor, and when I have to do the above I try to be firm and clear without also losing my patience. I just have zero tolerance for this kind of thing, and if that leads to a few bad eval responses, so be it.

[are the kids alright?]

UGH. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that! What a nightmare. I don’t have good advice but hope it helps to mention that I’ve noticed problems like that getting worse and worse post-COVID, so based on reading this, my guess is that it’s not you, it’s them.

[Assistant Prof]

When I was a freshman, I had one class that I enjoyed, and I (apparently) felt comfortable making irrelevant and distracting jokes instead of sincerely doing certain tasks. Midway through the semester, the professor asked me to stay behind after class. She told me directly that my behavior was unhelpful, rude, and distracting. I honestly didn't even realize that my behavior could be construed in this way; I thought I was brightening the atmosphere by making jokes! Ah... to once again have the confidence of an 18 year-old.

In any case, now as a prof, the lesson I take from this is that you need to speak to problem students directly, one-on-one and you need to not sugar coat things at all: "Your behavior is unacceptable. It is detracting from everyone's learning. Fix it or you are not welcome in class." Don't try to be kind; being direct about it is more kind in the long run. I am so thankful to my prof from when I was a freshman. I have done this a few times as a prof, and it has worked. It's important to do it after class rather than in front of the other students, of course. Maybe those students hated me, but they at least shut up and let everyone else learn.

For any universal policy that has been stated explicitly from day one (such as no cell phones, no laptops, no loud talking to each other, etc.), I call things out immediately when I see them in class. I have no time for that crap.

[Tenured now]

I'm also a woman, and agree that my move is to call students out, calmly and explicitly, in front of the rest of the class. I'd also recommend bringing this up to your department chair earlier rather than later, both because they might be able to offer resources to help, and because it's better for it to come from you first in case the students try to retaliate against you.

[Teaching Philosophy as a Woman]

Here's a tactic: At the beginning of the semester, have students collectively develop a code of conduct for the classroom. Ask them to reflect on how they would like to be treated and what is acceptable in the classroom. You can do this by having students reflect on what they would like to see in the classroom and then sharing out (sometimes anonymously is best--use sticky notes and have students write their suggestions on them and place around the room for review.) This is a great way to set the tone. When students participate in creating the code of conduct there is more buy in by everyone.

[Bill Vanderburgh]

Lots of good advice in this thread already. Solidarity! I had my worst class ever in 30 years of teaching this spring, though it was mostly extreme absenteeism and lack of effort from students rather than bad behavior. Several of my women colleagues reported bad behavior this semester, however. I think the post-covid explanation has got to be at least partly correct.

Check with your chair, but many universities have a policy that you can tell a disruptive student to leave the classroom. If they won't leave, end the class on the spot and follow up with the chair and dean of students or whomever handles disciplinary issues on your campus. (You can also call campus security to have disruptive students removed, but that seems like a nuclear option to be avoided unless absolutely necessary.)

If you want to try something less drastic first, what about starting the next class period with an in-class group activity where you assign the groups, sending members of the problem clique separately to distant corners of the room. After the group activity, students will probably just stay where they are for the rest of the period and might be less likely to act out when away from their friends. Hopefully with new social connections in class they'll be less likely to be disruptive in the future. But if they continue to be disruptive, move immediately to other steps.

Another idea: Ask the chair or a senior colleague to observe a class period. Then they can pull the problem people aside for admonition.

[Circe]

Sounds like other have provided good advice. Just quickly on this:

Also, how do you deal with colleagues who can only speak to you of how impressive they are as teachers, how they transfix students with their teaching, when you experience bullying in the classroom?

These colleagues are almost certainly lying or exagerating. Of course, it is logically possible that they are telling the truth. But even so, only extremely insecure people talk like this. In either situation, you should just ignore. While you could request to observe them in the classroom (either to get them to stfu or learn for yourself), these people are probably not good to engage with and best ignored...

[Sis]

Another woman here.
An approach which might help you is to ask the mental health support team at your university about managing the classroom behaviour. When those people are good at their job, they can be terrifically helpful. I found them so helpful that I joined the student mental health/well being/suicide prevention group at my university. Doing so yourself might also help you to deal with bad evaluations or unsympathetic managers.