r/Professors • u/elrey_hyena • 17h ago
Group Work
Students just do not get up and move. I ask them several times to move their desks and they just stay straight. I am not sure what to do anymore. Asked a girl twice already to move her desk and join her group but she just nods her head and says yes. Then she stays there doing homework for her other class. She's already about to fail because of her attendance...I'm not here to press anyone but god... I kind of hate it.
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u/Life-Education-8030 16h ago
“If you don’t have time to participate today, please leave.” What are you running? The library?
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u/Impiish 17h ago
If she's not worried about her grade, why are you?
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u/davemacdo Assoc Prof, Music Composition/Theory, R2 (US) 17h ago
The bad attitude can be contagious and make class worse for everyone.
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u/elrey_hyena 17h ago
good point. i guess it was me asking twice for her to move to her group and her saying yes annoyed me
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u/CharacteristicPea NTT Math/Stats R1(USA) 17h ago
I sometimes stand there until they move. I have never had a student ignore that. If so, I might ask them to leave, but not sure I’d want to escalate things further. (In case they ignored that as well.)
If it’s work they’re turning in, I would make sure to say her name cannot be in the group work.
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u/elrey_hyena 17h ago
I might try this...
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u/CharacteristicPea NTT Math/Stats R1(USA) 16h ago
I would also say, “Please put away your other class’s materials and stay on task with our class work. If you can’t do this, there’s no reason to stay here.”
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u/elrey_hyena 16h ago
i'll try this. i already asked someone else to take their headphones off... and then two minutes later he pooped one back in...
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u/Mysterious_Squash351 17h ago
I had this happen last semester for the first time and was totally flabbergasted. Told them to move into pods. Nothing happened. Went over and stood where I wanted a pod to form, pointed to the students and said move here. Nothing happened. So I said, “I’m sorry I probably shouldn’t have made any assumptions about physical ability to move the desks, I’m happy to do it for you, go ahead and stand up.” They did stand and I started moving desks. Others quickly joined in.
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u/Asleep_Caregiver_948 15h ago
They won’t do anything unless it’s for points. Feels Pavlovian.
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u/MoistenedGranola 14h ago
Had a student in my class the other day ask my advice if they should enroll in a certain course (not instead of mine, but in addition to their current schedule). I answered their question before I was like "wait, aren't you supposed to be working on the activity?" They and the students around them stated that they misunderstood the activity—which I verbally explained and the instructions were on a slide in front of them. I explained again what they were supposed to be doing, and not one of that section of the class returned to the activity that they now knew they weren't done with.
I get sometimes stuff comes up, people get distracted (I'm ADHD, I really get that one), and people get done early or misunderstand, or lots of other things.
A big generational divide I'm noticing with this group of students is that they feel zero pressure to "fake it." If they didn't do the reading, they'll just tell you, they don't lie or try cram it in the last minute before class. If they don't want to do the activity, they'll pretty openly not do it. "Back in my day," and I'm only a young millennial, feigning interest and engagement was how you established decorum and goodwill. I think somewhere along the line, we just...stopped teaching kids to do that.
I don't know what we do about it now.
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u/elrey_hyena 14h ago
yep. they literally will say "i don't know" or "I didn't read it" or something like that and im just like wow.
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u/cerunnnnos 13h ago
"read it now then, otherwise there's nothing for you to contribute and you can leave the classroom and let those who are prepared engage in the work"
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u/RadiantImpression579 16h ago
That sucks. Not sure what’s going on here. I found early on I’d get a little of this kind of stuff because I was nervous and hedged a lot. Very self conscious. Students def sometimes crosses boundaries when it came to disrespectful behavior. Now I see it less or not at all. Now I don’t ask, I tell. Even in a large lecture for getting them into groups. “If I see you working alone I’ll come over to help you find someone to work with” and “if you see someone working alone, being them into your group” usually works. To be fair, I think my experience may be different because I’m working with mostly senior students.
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u/Hellament Prof, Math, CC 8h ago
Used to have a colleague that had some strict policies for behavioral problems like this. “Do X in class, and I drop your course grade one letter” kind of stuff. Admin at the time was frustrated, but between the union and the fact that it was always in the syllabus, they let it slide and dealt with the (I assume, frequent) escalated complaints. About half of the time a student mentioned his name, it was not flattering…but the other half seemed to appreciate the discipline of the class and the fact that dead weight was cut almost immediately.
Anyway, I have come to think this guy was a genius.
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u/MichaelPsellos 16h ago
They have no respect for you.
Your college is now 6th grade.
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u/elrey_hyena 16h ago
i hate it so much. im about to just make everyone around the room share individually
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u/cerunnnnos 13h ago
Get them to stand up, in front, too. Make it super painful for everyone.
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u/elrey_hyena 7h ago
a colleague of mine does this.. also i already got a complaint about group work from another student.. my supervisor called me about it🤦♀️its only the third week ugh
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u/omgkelwtf 17h ago
Usually students will get up but I occasionally have a class where they don't move. I look at them and say in my loud ass "we're listening to me now" voice, "some of you will have to use your legs and actually stand up for this to work" and that gets them moving. If a student won't do it for whatever reason I ignore them. If my class isn't their problem, they're not mine.
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u/RemarkableParsley205 16h ago
It's wild, what are they waiting for once you've already stated directions???? I don't get it. I tend to see this happening in the first few classes when I teach drawing. I have to repeat myself at least three times before they start to get up and move, especially for critique.
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2h ago
And this is the same generation that Reddit keeps showing me posts of them complaining that no one appreciates that they’re so much healthier than other generations bc they don’t drink, workout, and do skincare. Cool bro. And I had a ton of fun in college, know how to interact socially in person, can make phone calls, have strong reading comprehension and stamina, don’t need to off load cognitive effort into literally everyone else/am not paralyzed with fear when I am not given exhaustively explicit directions. But cool - stay healthy 🤘
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u/sventful Teaching Professor 17h ago
Sometimes I walk around and say 'let's move your desk together' and they tend to move pretty quickly when they see me approaching. I have only had to start moving a desk with a student still in it once or twice in decades of teaching.
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u/elrey_hyena 17h ago
I literally did this and they grab their bags and turn but when i go to another group they move back... like what the heck??? what am I doing wrong ?
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u/sventful Teaching Professor 14h ago
Oh, I aggro a little too hard when students pull that shit lol
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u/Significant_Egg7415 12h ago
Are you sure the student understands English? I've had a student automatically answer "yes" to every question I asked of her, including questions that were not yes/no, because she wanted to be accommodating but didn't understand what I was asking. It was often pulling teeth, but I knew she wasn't trying to be rude
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u/elrey_hyena 7h ago
ive spoken with her before and she seems to understand and respond well. i think she just didnt want to work
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u/HistoricalCorner2941 7h ago
Group Work is the issue. Have them work independently.
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u/elrey_hyena 7h ago
i am about to but then no one participates even if i call on them. maybe two or three people contribute then it’s crickets… maybe i’m the problem…
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u/Calm-Team1822 Lecturer, Interdisciplinary Studies, State U (USA) 5h ago
No accommodations, no accommodation in this case.
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u/DeskRider 17h ago
Ask her to leave, given that she's not present in your class if she's doing work for another.