Pushing all the wrong buttons

TEACHING TOOLBOX

Count yourself lucky if you don't have a class with at least one student who drives you up the wall.

It comes right after the cheese at college and university cocktail parties-a little whine. Awful, funny, hard-- to-believe stories about students and how rotten they can be. To an outsider, it might seem that professors really dislike those they teach. To anyone who has taught, however, it is usually a welcome relief-a catharsis-to trade anecdotes and experiences with other teachers. And in that respect, it's a healthy way to handle what might be one of the toughest jobs in the world. "Almost anyone who deals with students complains," says Berry Perlman, who, along with a colleague in the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, conducted a study last year to help faculty identify and fix teaching problems. "The issue is whether teachers can keep a perspective on their own frustrations and address problems, or whether their complaining seeps over into blaming the students. That serves no one."

Maybe your engineering classes have a few students whose habits set your teeth on edge-or maybe you find yourself griping more than a little to colleagues and spouse. So, is it the students, or is it you? And what can you do to make sure your complaints don't suggest something more serious than a routine need to vent?

Sandy Goss Lucas, an experienced teacher and professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Champaign, is the author of an article for the American Psychological Association journal APS Observer on identifying problem students-- who, both she and Perlman agree, fall into pretty universal categories-and dealing with them.

First, have you complained about the "Disaster Is My Excuse" student? They're always in your class, those students whose alarms didn't go off for a noon exam, whose printers jammed, who broke a hand. The forces of another world keep this student-sometimes well intentioned, sometimes deliberately misleading-from fulfilling requirements. Lucas suggests handing out in advance written consequences for missed or late exams, papers, or projects. Recommend time-- management or organizational-skill workshops. Study groups and small class groupings have proved themselves extremely effective at rehabilitating habitual procrastinators.

Second, don't you just hate the "I'm Not Really Here" student? "They appear in class, but you wonder why," says Perlman. Engineering students are often so intimidated by the level of difficulty in courses that they never volunteer questions, much less opinions. Lucas says easy ways to try to bring out a reclusive student are to start a dialogue by writing comments on papers, learning the student's name and saying hello, and encouraging e-mail correspondence. "I still exchange e-mail with a student who was in my class three years ago and barely said a word," says Lucas.

But Professor Karl Smith, director of undergraduate studies in civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, says engineering professors need to work harder to break the ice. "Students don't challenge teachers nearly enough, especially first-- year students who think the professors have all the answers," he says. "But when we have 30 or 40 percent of engineering students bailing out after the first year, we need to take a look at how we're teaching." Understanding the different ways students learn is crucial, says Smith. "The most important thing we do is help people learn how to think."

Third, don't you just love the student who thinks, "I'm Here, Why Can't I Get An 'A'"? Perlman at Wisconsin says, "Some students act like they're in school only to get their ticket punched," an offensive attitude to hard-working and seasoned educators. But Perlman says things are more complicated for students today, and some of the stress is showing. "They have more blended families, more instant communication, more complex lives." Like it or not, he says, students today are consumers, and engineering education must change to meet that reality.

Professor Smith at the University of Minnesota agrees, and sees a positive direction. "Medicine and business have changed the way that they work with students, using problem-based approaches, putting students into small groups where they have to decide what they need to know and how they should solve a problem. That's the way engineering works in the real world, but we've been slow to embrace these strategies because they require quite a lot of skill on the part of faculty."

Oh, and fourth, don't you just despise the "What Do You Mean, You're the Professor?" student. Amazed to find that someone else is in charge, this student questions everything. Often a high achiever, his or her constant challenges disrupt the class flow and interfere with other students' learning. A low-key reprimand in class or talking to the student outside of class focuses attention on the impact on other students. Convey that you are interested in his or her comments and would be happy to talk during office hours, says Lucas. Rarely, this does not work, and you might then privately ask the student to withdraw from the course. N.L. Gage, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education at Stanford, says, "In my 40 years of college teaching, I had to choose this course of action only once."