Student continuously makes insulting comments during my lecture - how do I handle him?

Question

I teach in a small college and one student seems to have an obsessive need to make comments aloud during class. Sometimes those comments are funny (he is the class clown) but sometimes they feel abusive and critical when aimed directly at me. Yesterday when I was reviewing an exam he made it a point to say twice that he learns better from my supervisor, "I want ___________ to teach us; I learn better from him." Last night I also mentioned the wrong date of their next class. I apologized for misspeaking and corrected myself but not before a negative comment was made by him about being wrong.

In the past, I remember distinctly him making a negative comment when I made a mistake, "come on man, get it together" and a few minutes later when he couldn't answer my question in class, I jokingly said, "well, as you said to me, 'come on man, get it together.'" The whole class laughed aloud at my comeback to him.

Last night's comments really stung. When he commented that he wanted to learn from my boss, I agreed that my boss is brilliant and that he should reach out to him, to which he said he already did.

What do you do or say when a student basically tells you that you are not a good teacher, to your face, in front of the entire class?? Thank you!

Answer 1

Before you pursue any of the other suggestions proposed here (return fire, kick him out), talk to him one on one about this at an opportune moment, i.e. after class or during office hours in case he visits them.

Do not focus on how his comments "stung". Do focus on why his comments are inappropriate to make in class. That is, do not pretend that his comments did not hurt you, but do not dwell on it. Rather, make a clear, brief, and defensible argument why his comments are inappropriate.

I would tell him that he can raise concerns about your quality of teaching with you in private, but that class time is not the time to make snide remarks about your teaching, because it disrupts the teaching process. Of course, you should only say this if it is actually true, i.e. if the reason that you want him to stop is because you actually believe that it disrupts the teaching process, rather than because his comments sting.

Example: "Look, judging by your comments in class, I see that you don't seem to have a lot of respect for me as a teacher. That's fine with me, you don't have to respect me personally, but you cannot keep making these kinds of remarks in class."

Then, depending on your teaching philosophy, you can supply a truthful reason why. For instance, because a certain basic level of authority is required for you to run the class smoothly, and what he's doing goes beyond constructive remarks and well into the territory of undermining that basic authority. Students are free to decide whether or not they like your teaching, but they don't need him egging them on.

Be brief and do not engage in discussion about this. State this as a fact and be prepared to back it up.

Decide beforehand how far you are willing to escalate this. If they are unwilling to be reasoned with, decide whether or not you should tell them that you require a certain basic level of respect from your students as a prerequisite of participation in the class.

Answer 2

This is the adult world, not school.

What do you do or say when a student basically tells you that you are not a good teacher, to your face, in front of the entire class??

At the third level you tell them to be quiet or leave.

You might tell the entire class that this is the adult world and here they are expected to listen and learn, not behave like children.

This student is behaving like some secondary school kids do, and I would be surprised if they did not behave just as badly in high school. But the third level is the adult world and the adult world does not tolerate this behavior. Neither do you.

The remarks they are making are designed to annoy you. They're gaslighting you. Do not engage in tit for tat exchanges — that is what they want. That's what entertains them.

Check with your academic office (or supervisor) what the allowed punitive actions are. There will be a formal approach to this, usually with increasing levels of severity.

Typically I'd expect you to be required to do something like email a formal warning to the student that they must behave or could be subject to formal punishment, including suspension or expulsion from lectures or even the school.

But the bottom line is that this is the adult world and you hold all the cards. Do not play their game. Play the game as set out by the institute's rules for behavior and conduct. These give you power. Use it.

Last night's comments really stung. When he commented that he wanted to learn from my boss, I agreed that my boss is brilliant and that he should reach out to him, to which he said he already did.

This was a mistake. You engaged with them using their rules. Don't do this again.

Answer 3

You should check the rules and regulations of the college to see if he violated any rule. If he continues doing this, kick him out of the class. If he does it again, you need to take it further.

You cannot let him (or anyone) pushing you around like that. Once students know they can do it without any consequence other than hurting you, they will always do it.

I don't think "lecturing" him is a good idea. It is something that you cannot fix easily. A student with such a behavior will not listen to you. He probably needs to fail a few times (because of his behavior) to become a better man.

Years ago, I was such a student. I mocked teachers for their academic "incompetence" because I thought I knew way more than them. Years later, I regretted doing that so much. Such an attitude could not take one so far.

Furthermore, it could also be a general problem of many students studying at that small college. Probably, you will need to learn how to deal with it as well.

Answer 4

You describe the student as being somehow evil or bad. Instead, they might have a neurological disorder such as something like autism spectrum disorder that they have never overcome. Some of the symptoms listed at the above link sound similar to what you are seeing.

If this student generally behaves like this in other classes than yours then this might be the explanation. You can (probably) explore this with your colleagues who have had interactions with the student.

How you deal with it depends on rules and regulations. You might be able to refer them to a counsellor. You might, yourself, get advice from a counsellor in how to deal with such people.

Among other things, people on the spectrum tend to have poor social interaction skills. This is just what you are seeing. Punishment, then, isn't what is called for, but professional help may be. If this is the actual explanation you won't be able to correct it on your own.

Note that the privacy of such folks needs to be respected.

Answer 5

This depends on where you are. In the UK some universities have personal tutors for students. In my first year teaching here, my English accent was funny and two students kept laughing at me the entire session. A quick email to the lecturer, with the implicit next step of talking to their personal tutors, quickly corrected the situation. Also, if the student has some particular condition, some unis let you know via email.

Answer 6

I feel that none of these answers are adequate, because none of them direct OP to take ownership of their role in this.

If, as stated in the original question, this has been going on for some time, then you have established for your students that this classroom environment is informal and that snarky "class clown" comments from the students are allowed. Had you established from the outset that they were not allowed - as I can assure you many other instructors do - this would not be happening.

After allowing "funny" comments from the class for an extended period of time, it is not appropriate to suddenly try to seek out a way to punish the student because you didn't like one of the comments. You made this bed - probably in a misguided attempt to seem easy-going and likeable. This is how that bed is, sometimes, and is one big reason why other instructors enforce more restrained environments.

The best thing for you to do is to meet with the student privately and frankly tell them that although you have allowed "quips" from the class in the past, going forward they will not be allowed. In the course of doing this, specifically acknowledge that you realize that your role in setting the previous behavior boundaries, and explain that you have decided to make a change. There is no need to talk about your personal feelings about any particular comment, and in fact doing so undermines your position.

Answer 7

Your only option is to flash a brief smile when he does that, spend as few words as you can on any responses (basically, his measure of succes is how much he can distract and unsettle you). Think of phrases such as: "Good point. Anyone else?"

Your responsibility is to the learning experience of everyone in the room, and while they may find him amusing, ultimately they will feel he detracts from the value they get out of an expensive education. So most others will appreciate your firmness, even if they do not speak up.

Also (and there is some evidence of this in your question) this kind of student will always try to ingratiate themselves with your boss, their boss, and their boss. The basic mechanism is this: at some point the student underperforms and you have no choice but to give a poor assessment, which they have now ensured is pre-tainted. "He have me a C because he had it in for me." (I know cases of guys [it is usually guys] who played this game with several supervisors all the way to a PhD. In a way, it is better if you've dealt with them as undergrads or master's students, because it is so much worse with a PhD/grad student.)

Do not be drawn into this game.

Answer 8

I find none of your examples to be an insult (as you called it in your subject). Not constructive, but far from being an insult.

Probably nobody likes to hear things like "I want ___________ to teach us; I learn better from him.", but it might even be true. Tell him that he's not going to choose his teachers, case closed.

"Come on man, get it together" is not constructive either, but you should learn to ignore such things.

So, in my humble opinion: Take a step back and rethink how bad his remarks actually are. Do not shoot back. It's a fight one doesn't want to get into, and I'm not sure you would win it.

And... teaching is not about winning against your students in the first place.

Answer 9

The boat may have sailed with this particular student or even class, but for the future (in new/fresh settings), I would advise this:

• If you are generally a humorous character yourself, joking around, being very jovial, dial it back in class. You can still be that way before and after, but make it a habit to be formal or maybe even a little stiff in class. The class room is not entertainment - you are working there, and some of the students are as well. (This is assuming from your SE handle that you're teaching a "hard", technical subject, anyways.) Your teaching should be clearly visible as an earnest affair, making the misbehaviour of the student even more obvious.
• Do not feel alone in this. The troublemaker is not only disrespectful to you, but also to the other students, and disrupting them as much as you. You can be sure that a good portion of your other students are quite annoyed as well, assuming most of them are there out of their free will and not due to compulsory education.
• Do not engage with silly comments. Treat them as ugly presents handed to you - you do not need to accept them. You can observe them and decline to accept, if that makes sense.
• If at all, try to be compassionate. Have pity with the student who has to behave like that, and will very likely at some point in their life run into problems due to that because they maybe won't work too well in work or private settings.
• Hurtful comments take up only a second of the time of the troublemaker, but can work on you for days or months. You have spent time thinking about it; you spent time writing this question; you are spending time reading the answers, and so on and so forth, while the troublemaker has very little investment, and probably a modicum of joy. Be aware of this imbalance and use it to lessen the impact of the comments in your own mind.
• There is no need whatsoever for you to take the "advice" or a comment from someone to heart, unless you respect them. They are just moving their vocal cords and pushing air molecules around. They could be ill or a bad person, but certainly not a leading figure for you. Reserve that for people you look up to.

These tips are not meant to reframe the situation, but to give you tools how to lessen the impact in your own mind. I assume the student in question is not running around drawing a bleak image of you with your supervisors, or anything like that, and thus really hurting your career.

It is generally hard to impossible to change other people; it is much easier to change yourself. If indeed you feel a need to change the situation outwardly, instead, the proper measures would depend heavily on your local culture and regulations - best discussed with your own supervisor or support structures of your uni.

Answer 10

Student continuously makes insulting comments during my lecture - how do I handle him?

After reading the actual descriptions of the "insults" the first thing that came to mind was neurodiversity which is discussed in @buffy's answer.

It doesn't sound like Tourettes necessarily, but that's certainly something that one does not warrant "handling" the individual.

To me it sounds more like just being honest, speaking the first thing that pops into one's mind without the socially appropriateness filter keeping it from moving from thoughts to vocalization.

"Get it together" sounds to me like someone trying to fit in, be more social, but in a way that seems inappropriate to most of us.

If there's room to allow a bit of this from this student, without it seriously impacting other students, it might be worth considering just ignoring it, especially if their participation and progress is otherwise within an acceptable range.

Perhaps "handling" the student in some specific way isn't really necessary, and working on not letting it bother you, or even trying to see the humor and honesty in it might be a better approach. That's based on the question as written, there could be extenuating circumstances of course.

Answer 11

I get the feeling that you have not been a lecturer that long.

The best plan here is for you to meet that student a.s.a.p. in your office and talk through your - reasonable - expectations for all those students during a lecture. Make it clear that a lecture is education primarily - any humor is incidental. Tell him you don't want to continue with him commenting - negatively or positively - on your teaching capability. If he has an issue with your teaching he really must decide to study the course independently; you are quite happy for him to be returned his fees towards your module.

Tell him to think about this and come back to you with a decision before the next scheduled lecture in your module.

Say all this in a calm matter-of-fact manner, no hint of personal slight.

If he shows up to the next lecture without responding to your decision point first, then ask him to leave pending a discussion with you. If he refuses to leave, address the class saying that when Mr X finally decides on whether my lecturing is up to his standard or not, I will continue. Then postpone that lecture to a later period and just before you leave invite the class representatives to meet you in your office to elaborate on this matter.

Answer 12

Keep things open but feel free to return fire

As a preliminary matter before giving advice, I'll just point out that the ideal of academia is generally pretty open about what you can say in class, both as a teacher and as a student. In particular, the ideal of "academic freedom" generally includes the freedom of academic staff and students to give their opinions and beliefs in relation to the subjects of study (which arguably would include the quality of teaching or resources for those subjects). This is valuable because it allows students to learn to remain calm and learn in contexts where they encounter unpleasant ideas or discussions. In view of that, so long as comments remain somewhat on topic to the lecture/subject area it is usually best to allow that commentary. The idea is to try to create an environment where everyone is an adult and is able to behave as an adult.

In the present case, I would counsel you to allow this student to make his adverse remarks about the quality of your teaching, etc. However, this could also be an opportunity to teach this young man that academic freedom and the resultant freedom of speech is a two-way street --- if he wishes to make negative commentary about his lecturer in front of other students during that lecture, he should be prepared for critical commentary to be returned in kind. Therefore, I would say that you are doing exactly what you should be doing --- let him make his comments but return fire with your own zingers. Try to keep things light-hearted to make everyone laugh and avoid escalating the conflict, but feel free to "put him in his place". You are probably not the best lecturer on campus and he is probably not the best student, so if he wishes to draw attention to the former fact, feel free to likewise draw attention to the latter. If this student insults you publicly, feel free to insult him right back (in a proportionate manner), ideally in a light-hearted way that will entertain the other students and keep things from escalating. Next time he tells you that he would much rather be taught be your supervisor, tell him "I'd rather be on a beach sipping margaritas with [insert beautiful movie-star], but it looks like we're both stuck with each other". If you are concerned that your return fire might escalate things, you might also consider having a short conversation with this student (or even with your entire class) just letting them know that you wish to allow an open dialogue in class, and treat them as adults, but that this is also a two-way street.

From what you have described, it sounds to me like this student has poor social skills and is not good at gauging when a comment is a legitimate observation on a topic and when a comment is crossing the line into being an insult. Given his lack of ability in this area, being on the receiving end of some of your own responsive barbs might actually allow him to see what it is like when someone publicly draws attention to your shortcomings, and it might teach him some humility.

Finally, it is worth noting that some of what you're encountering may become easier as you develop your own teaching competency and become more self-assured in your own teaching. You will get better and better at teaching as you practice it more and remarks like this won't sting at all. If I were to make a mistake in a lecture and get teased by a student it would just make me laugh at myself along with the other students and then I would probably see if I can get them back with a (light-hearted) zinger later.