Dealing with Student Problems

&
Problem Students

1
 The Romans taught their children
nothing that was to be learned sitting

2
Crisis Clinic

3
 It’s a typical day in your class,
as you lecture ….

– A student enters 10 min late

– Several are discussing between themselves
– One has head back, eyes closed & mouth open
– A cell phone rings / someone is using a phone
– A student is Writing / Reading something

What might you do about all this?

4
One in Every Crowd
■ One of the students in your class goes out of
her way to be obnoxious: she acts bored,
sleep in class, and makes constant semi
audible wise cracks that set everyone around
her to snickering.
■ She also loves to ask you questions you can’t
answer and to point out flaws in everything
you do and say in lectures

5
Why me, Lord?
■ An agitated student comes into your office,
begins to discuss the quiz he just did so
poorly on, and then in a broken voice tells you
that he had a B average coming into this
semester and he’s now failing all his courses
and doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He
makes an effort to pull himself together,
apologizes for taking up your time, and gets
up to leave.
■ What might you do?
6
The old switcheroo
■ The tests have been handed in, graded, and
returned. A student comes in, shows you a
page
■ without a red mark on it that contains a
perfect solution to Problem 3, and complains
that the
■ grader must have overlooked that page
because points were taken off for Problem 3.
■ What might you do?

7
 Cheating*
■ Question: Is there likely to be cheating
on exams in the course I’m about to
teach?
■ Answer: Yes
■ Question: How will they do it?

8
■ Answer:
1. The Sneak Preview. (They get advance copies.)
2. The Eyes Have It. (They scan their neighbor’s paper.)
3. I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends. (They
text-message on their cell phone or instant-message
on their laptop to a classmate or a person outside of
the class.)
4. The Note of Precaution. (They bring crib sheets or
store information on their personal data assistant/cell
phone/calculator/laptop)
5. The Call of (a Warped) Nature. (They leave the test
room and get help.)

9
6. Quick Change Artistry. (They pick up your worked-
out solution at the front of the room and correct the
paper before handing it in.)
7. Now You See It, Now You Don’t. (They don’t hand
in the test and later claim you lost it.)
8. Three-Page Monte. (They substitute correct
solutions for incorrect ones after the graded tests are
handed back.)
9. Hire a Substitute.
10. History Repeating Itself. (They memorize solutions
to the same questions on past tests.)
This one is not cheating—it’s your fault for repeating
questions.
10
Question: How can I minimize cheating?
■ Answer:
1. Don’t leave copies of the test lying around,
including in computer files.
2. Know how many copies were run off. Count
them before the test is given.
3. Announce that cell phones, PDA’s, etc., will
be confiscated if they are used during the
test.
4. Make sure the exam is carefully proctored.
5. Don’t hand out worked-out solutions until you
are sure all the papers have been collected.
11
Question: How can I minimize cheating?
6. Log in the papers as soon as you collect them.
7. Use exam booklets if possible.
8. Make photocopies of some or all graded solution
papers, particularly those of anyone you have
suspicions about, before handing them back.
9. Require complete solutions. Don’t give credit for the
right answer magically appearing.
10. Give open-book tests as much as possible.
11. Give tests that are easy to read and possible to
solve. Students are much more likely to cheat on
tests they regard as unfair.
12. Don’t repeat exams!
12
 Non – disruptive & Disruptive

■ Non – disruptive
– Ignore if not repetitive / deliberate
– Deal outside the class if repeated

■ Disruptive
– Aggressive – short term & long term effects
– Passive (Indirect) – cannot do it
– Assertive – asking what he/she want & deal
outside the class if repeated
13
Thank You

14