Loud, rude ,disrespectful behavior in the classroom

[dblpn]

How do you deal with this type of behavior? unfortunately, there are a few students in my lpn class where those words describe them to a T. for instance, when the teacher is lecturing over a particular topic at least two women will cut her off. these are the same ones who will inject their life situation into everything that is discussed in class and it's very rude to do so when other students want to say something as well.

i'm so sick and tired of hearing about their kids. in human growth our instuctor said dont use your kids as examples for growth & development because it will confuse them and they will get questions wrong on exams by comparing their kids to what the book says. everyone is different the book is talking about the norm. some babies walk sooner than others...some girls develop sooner than other girls, etc. as soon as the instructors starts lecturing here comes "well, my kids did this when they were that age and they didn't do that" who cares? my god it is so frustrating when you're trying to focus on what is being said by the teacher when she is being interrupted constantly.

then there are the loud mouths. during film time which is a learning tool for our program, you can't focus or even hear sometimes because certain students in class are laughing or talking very loud, how rude! oh and not to mention the foul language that is commonly spoken...jesus christ! i try to stay calm and really stay to myself. i don't do study groups because of the silliness that goes on.

are any of you experiencing this type of behavior? this has become a learning barrier to those who are really struggling and with constant interruptions in class they may soon be out of the program.

[dblpn]

I don't have kids - but I have a family member with Alzheimer's Disease at home. This can bring interesting subjects up during our classroom discussions of older adults, and the disease itself. One thing to remember, no matter what the subject in class, get enough people in class and someone will either have, or have a family member who has it. I like to hear how my fellow students handle their problems and issues with different conditions. The one thing I try to remember in nursing school is that these are patients, human beings with these conditions, not just a diagnosis and pathophysiology. And yes, even their families are our patients. Try to be patient with some of your fellow students.

On the other hand that if you are talking through the lecture, giggling like a middle schooler or just being disruptive just stop it. I don't have time to try to shut you down, my lecture moves too fast, school moves too fast for me to spend my time shushing those who are being childish.

i understand what you're saying. i've used situations in my family before there is nothing wrong with that. what gets me is how these particular women are just plain rude when they interrupt the teacher by being contradictory all the time. the other gal she wants the instructor to repeat every single thing that she just said so she can write it down. it is impossible to try and write down word for word what the instructor says when taking notes. you make notes from lecture highlighting important things to further read on.

[dblpn]

They're called "gunners".

gunners? never heard of that before.

[Agrippa]

You must not have any kids because parents have the tendency to talk about our kids a lot!! We don't mean to be aggravating, we are just so proud and love our children so much--not to mention our children are perfection to us. It just happens when you become a mommy.

Yea, but it's disrespectful and inconsiderate when you force everyone in class to do so. Going on a personal tangent/anecdote that has little to no relevance to the course material, while also making us lose our train of thought, focus, and also making the instructor stop and start again, it costs us money.Lets quantify how much it costs us.

For me, my tuition is about $180 per hour. If the person(s) take up about 10 minutes of class time every class, and assuming that there are about 15 weeks of lecture, that comes to 150 minutes. So for me personally, she is costing me roughly $450. Multiply that by say...50 people in a class, this person is costing us $22,500.

I think the best way to get them to stop is tell the instructor so that she knows to cut them off and move on when she's interrupted or going off topic. If that fails, shame the person(s) into behaving.

[Agrippa]

gunners? never heard of that before.

We had maaaany in law school.

Gunner: In the United States a "gunner" is an overly competitive student, typically in law school or medical school. Calling someone a gunner is usually highly offensive[citation needed]. A gunner is also overly ambitious and often excitedly volunteers oral answers in class that are, by turns, incorrect, off-topic, or specifically designed to demonstrate the questionable "intellectual" prowess of the person supplying them. These questions are often prefaced with phrases like "A cursory literature search revealed ... " A gunner will compromise his or her peer relationships in order to obtain recognition and praise from his or her instructors and superiors, often by directly harming or attempting to harm the academic well-being of said peers.[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunner_(student)#gunner

[Cilantrophobe]

oh and not to mention the foul language that is commonly spoken...jesus christ!

:smackingf

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

Having returned to school after two decades in the "real world", I have been absolutely shocked by how informal and unruly the classroom has become. It was one thing to see this behavior amongst high school kids, but the number of adults who find this behavior acceptable in an academic setting has really floored me.

I shared my thoughts in these threads, and you'll find other relevant comments there as well:

https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/the-annoying-classmates-378190.html

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/what-students-should-378017.html

https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/girl-who-texting-344589.html

[AOx1]

As a nurse educator, this falls on my shoulders. Although I am not responsible for the bad behavior, I am responsible if it continues. It is up to a student to learn to behave professionally, and up to me to dictate the environment of the classroom. To that effect, I have used some of the following techniques. I ask that students place all questions and comments in a box. I then answer the questions online in our course discussion area. This works really well. I ask that live questions be limited to clarification (ex- I read the material and didn't understand why "x" was the priority of care). This limits class time spent on long anecdotal stories and rambling narratives. It also ensures that students have an answer to their question that they can reference.

We use an iclicker classroom response question. I throw in questions throughout the day to ensure I am being clear and students understand. Sometimes this is for points, and sometimes just to clarify.

If I have someone who constantly talks about themself/their relatives/total strangers to excess, I institute the bingo chip rule :) Students are given a set number of chips, and are told the chips are for the semester. They should use them all. This allows more quiet students to participate and limits those who dominate the class otherwise.

We also do a lot of group work and "hands on" activities, very little straight lecture. This helps a lot. I do expect professionalism, and don't allow students to talk when someone else is speaking, to surf the internet, eat during class, come in late, or otherwise be disruptive. It interferes with the ability of others to learn.

[momofsix, SN]

Never always. Never never. And DEFINITELY NOT like yours or how we do it here. A nurse at one of our clinical sites told us that....it can take you a long way in theory class. If it does not apply at "NCLEX General Hospital" leave it for the lunchroom.