How can i get the students in my class to stop telling stories and giving personal examples of every single thing we discuss? It is driving me insane. Our lectures with a particular instructor regularly lose upwards of 40 minutes to student "contributions" about their aunts best friends sisters hospital stay(not kidding... this happened today). We run out of time and miss half the lecture. Several students stopped coming to lecture with the instructor that allows this because they are better served re-reading the book then going down these rabbit holes.
So how do i fix it?
-Tell the instructor that this is impeding learning?
-Tell the students involved (there are 3 that i know the pathology of their entire extended families by now)
-air horn? ::i dream of this one, but would never do it:) ::
-say something on the internal class forum?
Every option is going to be uncomfortable. what would/did/can you do?
I'd go straight to the professor either before class or after class and discuss with him/her the problem privately. I've had people in my class before asking stupid questions on purpose to get a reaction out of the class and it was an insult to me that I had to put up with it. It was frustrating,especially considering the fact that I was PAYING to hear a lecture, and instead getting someone's story that Im not at all interested in.
If the issue isnt addressed in a timely manner, I'd just speak up and ask who ever is talking to save it for another time or after class. Always remember that you are paying for the class time, never accept an environment that is detrimental to your learning.
Oh good God! I had to tolerate this in my pathophysiology class. It was a FIVE HOUR CLASS, once a week. Drove me up the wall. Particularly, since a lot of these stories were judgmental and biased concerning elective surgeries. Seems everyone knew someone who had had a botched surgery or died due to complications. While I know there's risks, it is hardly the norm. GAH!
I agree the best thing to do would be to address the instructor privately. Tell her you are concerned because your classmates' anecdotes are interfering with your understanding of the material because it takes up too much lecture time. Hopefully that's all you would need to say in order for her to realize she needs to amend the situation. If that doesn't work, maybe you could suggest that students share their personal experiences in the class forum, if that's an acceptable use for it.
You know what bothers me?! When people do more complaining than studying.these people constantly talk crap about how difficult the class is, and they blame every instructor they have for their rotten grades. Obviously it is not impossible to pass, there are 5 people who got A's. How do I stop people from complaining too much lol
I remember my very first day of my first semester. The first thing the instructor said was "we don't want to hear about you or your families problems, so leave the stories out of the lecture". Definitely takes up way to much time when people do this. lol
Your instructor should definitely be handling this. It's not your responsibility to manage the classroom. In my program, they allowed more stories in earlier semesters, and now professors really curtail all of the extra fluff. Which I think is how it should be, because in the beginning we were all adjusting to the nursing student role and the program was more touchy-feelings, but now we're close to being professionals and this is our last chance to LEARN before the NCLEX!
The problem in my classes was that nine times out of ten, the interruptions came from the instructor's class favorites, so no one dared cross that invisible line.
HAHA! I just found out a guy in my class is peeved off that I(also issues with other people)ask questions or have comments. What's funny as it rarely happens, he can't stand people who have english as a second language asking for clarity either. Apparently he hates me as well ,as he doesn't like my comments or questions even though they were in context and short, someone caught him saying I should shut up my mouth after a discussion with a teacher during a break which didn't interfere with lecture time and it was also on topic. He does get peeved at all questions though, very entertaining when in a boring lecture as he thows himself around and moans when people ask anything. IDK no one else is bothered bout questions and comments but like I said they are really just maybe 10-15 mins worth tops in a 3 hour class. We always get all our lectures finished though so I see no problem with it.
What has kind of worked in our classes is if someone raises their hand as soon as the tangent starts. You keep your hand up HIGH the whole time. I'm talking full on, second grade style... minus the "oooh, oooh, oooh's" . This serves as a visual cue to the instructor that someone else is waiting to speak and they often get the story wrapped up much faster. Sometimes the story teller themselves wraps it because they get the sense that no one's really paying attention to them anyways. Make sure your question gets you right back to where you were before the tangent started. I think it sets the tone that the rest of the classmates are all about business. It doesn't shut down all class participation just stuff that's gone astray. But we only had one person that went off topic consistently. Might not work for a handful of people.
. This serves as a visual cue to the instructor that someone else is waiting to speak and they often get the story wrapped up much faster. Sometimes the story teller themselves wraps it because they get the sense that no one's really paying attention to them anyways. Make sure your question gets you right back to where you were before the tangent started. I think it sets the tone that the rest of the classmates are all about business. It doesn't shut down all class participation just stuff that's gone astray. But we only had one person that went off topic consistently. Might not work for a handful of people.
Natal4rmNepal
2 Posts
I'd go straight to the professor either before class or after class and discuss with him/her the problem privately. I've had people in my class before asking stupid questions on purpose to get a reaction out of the class and it was an insult to me that I had to put up with it. It was frustrating,especially considering the fact that I was PAYING to hear a lecture, and instead getting someone's story that Im not at all interested in.
If the issue isnt addressed in a timely manner, I'd just speak up and ask who ever is talking to save it for another time or after class. Always remember that you are paying for the class time, never accept an environment that is detrimental to your learning.