During High School Lecture teacher asked bored looking students to repeat what was just said! (principal, license)
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You need to carefully think about frontal teaching being good or bad. MOST teachers are not fully effective with frontal teaching but SOME are very effective and are engaging and great presenters. The point being made is that the OP was not a first hand observer of the situation and is just painting it as a whatever party. We can't read to much into the scenario. WE have embellished the original OP which was not first hand and created a scenario that may bear no resemblance to what ever happened.
While I agree that there are some engaging lecturers, it is not the best way for students to learn.
Remember the old saw: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
For most students, this is very true.
While you do need some direct instruction, if the kids don't actually practice the skills, they will not remember them. And if they don't explore the concepts actively, they will generally not understand them.
I think it's important as a teacher to pause and ask yourself one relevant question:
"Is this or is this not an act of disrespect?"
If it is, there are ways of dealing with that which I'll address in a moment. However, by far and away, the most common reason students fall asleep in class is simple: They're tired.
I had a wonderful teacher in college in a class I elected to take and whose material I loved. EVERY DAY I fell asleep. It was in the middle of the afternoon -- historically always a sleepy time for me -- and it did not matter what I did or did not do. I fell asleep. I felt ashamed, mostly because I was concerned he would take it as disrespect. It wasn't. No matter how I sat, how late/early I got up, whether I had coffee or not, I dropped off in that class because of the time of day.
I've found that students fall asleep because they're tired: they work too hard, they don't plan ahead and stay up too late on a school night, or they have to catch the bus at an ungodly hour. If I see a sleeper, I come up, I tap the chair leg gently with my foot or lift the back of their chair about 1/4". Both of these methods are inobtrusive, nonhumiliating, and effective. Usually, that alone is sufficient. If it is not, I write the student a pass to the nurse and advise them to go down and ask to sleep, because there is just no point in trying to stay awake. Plus, many students drive home, and when you add "sleepy teenage driver" to "large rolling metal object," it's not a wonderful combination.
If it happens repeatedly, I speak to the student and ask, "Hey, dude, what's going on?" Nonconfrontational, open-ended. Then I listen. Literally ninety or more percent of the time, it's been that the student's been working after school at a job or that they have troubles with the family, or some other circumstance such as that. It's rarely disrespectful.
If it is disrespectful, that becomes a discipline issue. Then, it's time to talk to the student and again ask, "Hey, dude, what's going on?" It's surprising how just simply asking what the problem is solves the problem.
Great point by Charles Wallace; I admit, I've dozed off (or almost) during class before, including in classes I really, really enjoyed.
High school students also have it extra tough, considering how much research has been done on sleep deprivation in teens, the difference in typical school start times and teenagers' specific biological sleep needs. That doesn't mean that students should be sleeping in class, of course, but it's a very, very good point that just because someone falls asleep doesn't mean that they're intentionally being disrespectful or rude.
That's the old school way and some of us still use it. It works. As far as self esteem? Who gives a ****? Being stupid will be way more self esteem defeating than a momentary embarrassment.
If a teacher is being observed and doesn't call out a disconnected student it will be noted on the observation.
I agree on this!
I recall when I was just a college student and one of my classmate fell asleep. When the teacher find it out, he woke her up and ask what he has been talking about. When she didn't answer because obviously she fell asleep, the teacher just scolded her and told her not to sleep again during class hours.
While I agree that there are some engaging lecturers, it is not the best way for students to learn.
Remember the old saw: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
For most students, this is very true.
While you do need some direct instruction, if the kids don't actually practice the skills, they will not remember them. And if they don't explore the concepts actively, they will generally not understand them.
Frontal instruction when DONE WELL can be very engaging. It worked for Socrates. Not all students are underachieving, Attention challenged and not interested. It is a teaching style and when done by a skilled practitioner with good checks for understanding effective. Oh yeah a check for understanding asking a kid with their head down if they understand! Good move. Many teachers are personable and some of the best are when engaged with the class and standing in front of the class.
PS, I hear and I forgot will get you flunked out of college. Many schools are full of focused productive students with parents wanting them to be well prepared for college. They are often willing to pay teachers well if their children have a successful transition to competitive colleges.
Frontal instruction when DONE WELL can be very engaging. It worked for Socrates. Not all students are underachieving, Attention challenged and not interested. It is a teaching style and when done by a skilled practitioner with good checks for understanding effective. Oh yeah a check for understanding asking a kid with their head down if they understand! Good move. Many teachers are personable and some of the best are when engaged with the class and standing in front of the class.
PS, I hear and I forgot will get you flunked out of college.
While I agree that there are some engaging lecturers, it is not the best way for students to learn.
Remember the old saw: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
For most students, this is very true.
While you do need some direct instruction, if the kids don't actually practice the skills, they will not remember them. And if they don't explore the concepts actively, they will generally not understand them.
I do and I understand only works when the students try to understand. I teach lab based classes and I can tell you that students resist understanding even when they do. Most just want the grade and will do the minimum to get it. You have to think to understand. Many don't want to think. They just want a procedure to get an anwer.
I fall into the do to understand category but I want to understand. It only works when the student wants to understand. I see and I remember does work. I wish I do and I understand worked all the time. Labs would be a lot more effective.
That said, I try to do all three. I teach, I demonstrate or help the class visualize and we do labs.
What do you think of this as an instructional technique. In High School the teacher gets frustrated that the students are not listening to him, so in the middle of his presentation he looks out into the class and finds the sleeping students and walks up to them and asks them to go up to the front of the class and repeat what he just told the class. Of course the sleeping student has no idea what to say because he or she has been day dreaming. The rest of the class laughs at the sleeping student making a fool of himself. The teacher is angry that he was not being listened by some people in class and the previously sleeping student returned to his desk red faced.
The next class session has few sleeping students but the self esteem of the bored sleeping students is ruined. Is the teachers approach too harsh?
Of course not. Why would it be too harsh? I think public peer pressure can be a very good thing to utilize as a disciplinary tool.
The teacher is there to teach; the student is there to pay attention and learn. If the student is sleeping, he or she should be made an example of as to what will not be tolerated. By high school, you're old enough to start learning how to finally be an adult with some minimal level of responsibility. Real life is not easy, and instilling some sense of accountability in people would do them some good.
The fact that people find it to be "bad" or "too harsh" to instill basic discipline is quite telling as to why education in this country is going to hell in a handbasket. You want to know what's wrong with education in America and why we're continually lagging in terms of results? This is it.
I have spent extensive time studying abroad, and my parents are the products of education systems in foreign countries - and I can tell you from personal experience that there is a much higher sense of discipline in those environments - and those are the students who are leaving American students in the dust in just about every measure of educational achievement. Why? Because they have the discipline to train students to roll up their sleeves, actually do some work, and hold themselves somewhat accountable for it. What a novel concept.
hi people i am new here
i think that the teacher should punish the sleeping student
or fire them i think that the person who dont like to learn the school should get ride them
thats my opnian
see u guys
There are definitely better approaches to students who sleep in class.
1. Plan your class with very little lecture. Intersperse lecture material with activities the students do. Depending on the particular subject, you may want to try some group activities that require everyone in the group to contribute ala Kagan's cooperative lessons. Approach teaching as if you were a coach or mentor not the repository of all knowledge.
Unless this is middle school or lower, teaching with "very little lecture" is doing students a disservice in CP or higher classes. The vast majority of college courses are still taught by lecture and not just 45 mins of lecture but rather 3 hrs.
Additionally, some high school course just do not lend themselves to anything but lecture. With the exception of labs (which at best take up 25% of time) CP and higher chemistry and physics consist almost entirely of the teacher lecturing with some small amount of problem solving thrown in.
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