Hi On Thu, 19 Sep 2002, don allen wrote:
> Maybe I'm getting too old & crusty for this job, I'm no youngster myself! > but I'm not sure that I understand the rationale of "Don't > embarrass talkers". These people are being rude and > disruptive. There isn't one of them who doesn't know that it > is impolite and an infringement on the other students. Why > shouldn't they be embarrassed about their egregious > behaviour? While I always try to deal with such individuals > in a low key manner at first I have no hesitation in ejecting > repeat offenders from a class. In every case where I've had > to do this the students later came to my office, apologized, > and behaved appropriately for the rest of the term. Is there > any data to support the "no-embarrassment" approach or is > this just a mantra from the warm&fuzzy crowd? We're probably much alike, starting with the softer methods. Except for the ADHD student I mentioned in another posting, I've never had to go beyond talking to students just before or just after class, usually making the point that I find it distracting and difficult to concentrate. I'm sure I have it in me to embarass students, although I try to save that for University Administrators. I do think that it would have to be done carefully, which you seem to have mastered (e.g., perhaps with a little humor). Otherwise, it might come across as hostile or an over-reaction. As for evidence, I'll start with an anecdote and move on from there. 1. I remember an all-boys grade 9 class I was in. The class discovered that they could "get to" the teacher and drove her to tears and to quit before the year was over. They stopped the practice of all-boys classes the next year. Again we do hope for better from university students, but if one is in essence starting down a possible road of intimidation, then it would be important to assess how big a stick you're willing to yield and how big a stick it would take. 2. Would not embarassment (not done in good humor) fall into the category of punishment? Isn't the literature generally (not universally) skeptical about its efficacy? 3. I earlier mentioned classroom studies with kids showing that a soft reprimand was effective and a loud reprimand actually increased the frequency of the undesired behaviour. My search of psychinfo for similar research with university students did not turn up anything. Of course, it did not turn up anything to support the efficacy of embarassing students either, or comparisons between that and gentler approaches. 4. Finally, I do think that the issue of "saving face" is much more general than Hawaii and surely would apply to large numbers of students in our classes (unless you are in some ethnically pure area of North American or an ethnically pure institution). My classrooms in Canada nowadays are pretty much as international as you can get ... whites from diverse cultural groups, Aboriginals (the preferred term in Canada, I think), Japanese, Chinese, Philipino, middle-eastern nationalities, both North American and African blacks, Central and South America, ... 5. I don't like to embarass students if it isn't necessary. Perhaps this comes from too many years teaching statistics, but I find that if I want students to speak up in such classes then I have to respond very gently no matter how _____ (substitute some more polite phrase for "idiotic") the comments or questions. Best wishes Jim ============================================================================ James M. Clark (204) 786-9757 Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax University of Winnipeg 4L05D Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED] CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark ============================================================================ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
