As teachers, in front of a difficult student, we may feel confused about how to react, tend to lose our nerves and handle the situation inappropriately, which can lead to laughter and jokes from other students, as well as the inability to solve the problem. Therefore, in this article we will give you some tips to deal with this type of circumstance that occurs more often than we would like.
There are studies and testimonies in which the student is defined as an adversary, however, this is not true. Thinking this way only encourages teachers to behave in a way that may not be the best: punishing this difficult student with silence, indifference, or the use of his position of power.
- The testimonies of the different teachers are something interesting that we will use in the study mentioned to address the difficult subject of students.
- Through them we will be able to see the good or bad practices that are used in the classroom and how to transform.
- Them to allow control of the situation.
When we meet a student who challenges us, we need to identify very well whether this is happening in a specific context. For example, when you’re surrounded by friends. Group strength is something that encourages and pushes young people (this also happens to adults in their daily lives) to do certain things they wouldn’t do if they were alone.
One strategy that often works to deal with the difficult student is to identify who the group leaders are and make friends or build a trusting relationship with them. To do this, it is necessary to talk individually with each member of the group, as a teacher did:
“It was a very violent group, but if you approach it, you realize that separately everything is different. I was able to befriend the leaders, and was that enough to reassure the whole group?
A student can also challenge us to identify our weaknesses, this attitude can be particularly intense in the early hours of teaching we have with him, with his goodwill trying to determine whether he can play difficult games, get angry or, on the contrary, put himself in his place as a student and respect us.
At this stage it is extremely important to manage emotions well, under no circumstances should we discuss or stand up to the student, it is important to put ourselves in our place, respect ourselves as adults and not play the game. Therefore, while we are not comfortable with the way the student challenges us, we need to know when to ignore and how to react appropriately and intelligently. Let’s look at some specific situations.
He thinks he’s right, even though he’s wrong. He refuses to accept the explanation and resolution of a problem according to the teacher’s instructions. In these cases, don’t lose your temper. We will continue to argue and demonstrate that the resolution of the exercise we have shown is correct using many examples.
If the situation becomes unsustainable, we will make it clear that if you want to do what you think is right, it will be your responsibility. Similarly, a student (whose exercise has already been corrected) may be asked to resolve the matter in when classmates manage to resolve it, group pressure will prevent the student from doing the opposite in the wrong direction.
He is another kind of stimulating student; does not allow the teacher to make mistakes, take the time to help solve an exercise, or have to seriously think about finding a solution independently, these students usually move on to another exercise, while trying to solve the previous one, they think: Why what to work on a problem that will be solved by others?
In these situations it is important to work with the student in problem solving, as teachers we will act as teachers, helping students solve the difficulties they face, it is not us who have the answers, but those who encounter them.
Here are some of the scenarios we can find. In this sense, many of the attitudes we have described are merely a reflection of the problems that each student may have in their own home, however, in the face of any challenge that afflicts us, it is important to maintain control of this sometimes means privileging the defense of the rules of communication and learning over our own knowledge. Let’s think that if communication deteriorates, the road will be much more difficult.