Teaching question: defeating the eyeball rollers

[frustrated]

Hi folks,

I've got a teaching question here. I'm teaching Intro to Soc for the bazillionth time to mostly freshmen. I've got a class of 45 spread out across a large room, and four of them (young women) consistently roll their eyes at each other, turn to look at the clock, and generally seem quite snarly and/or bored to death. I am an experienced teacher but their behavior is literally so distracting I forget what I'm saying. They're generally not talking, so I can't call them out for this. But I find it extremely rude. Anyone have any advice on how to deal with these students? I'm finding it extremely demoralizing, and it's tainting my experience of the whole class even though nearly everyone else is highly engaged. Any advice much appreciated!

[drbearjew]

Seating chart.

[idk]

A teachable moment, perhaps? Bring it up in class as part of a lesson about norms. You can just discuss with everyone without naming them specifically. Thats probably what I'd do, then if the behavior persists I'd discuss it with them after class. They may not realize you're seeing them do this, and/or have considered that they are expected to behave differently.

[callonthem]

Make them participate. Call on them when asking some question. Something to the effect of "What do you think? We haven't heard from you in a while."

Or single them out. "I saw you making a face. Did you have something to add or is something unclear".

Be courteous and professional, but this will probably make them as uncomfortable as their behavior is making you.

[herewego]

There's some research on handling these kinds of issues. I remember one study that found when professors confront these issues openly in class other students can find it alienating or irritating. So, students who were fine before can be turned off by even mild confrontation. Other students seem to react best when faculty address these problems privately outside of class.

I invite the students to my office individually. I ask them why they think I asked them to meet with me. Then, after they've had a chance to speak, I describe what I have observed and how it is affecting me and other students. Often they are stunned that I've been paying attention to them. But also often they tell me they didn't realize what impression they were making. I've found that this strategy helps improve their behavior. Also, I tend to feel a little better because I had an opportunity to get to know the students better and see them as something other than the eye-rollers.