Managing “hot moments” during classroom discussion
[show_avatar email=4265 user_link=authorpage show_name=true show_email=true show_biography=true avatar_size=35]
Students often disagree over deeply held beliefs. Sometimes tension boils over during class discussion, resulting in a “hot moment.”
Exploring the causes of conflict can create an important learning experience: many instructors deliberately bring controversial issues into class discussion to push students to think more critically. However, when hot moments escalate to the point that the conversation ceases to be productive (or worse, when students feel threatened or unsafe), they can threaten teaching and learning.
Addressing Hot Moments
Hot moments can happen no matter how hard an instructor works to create an open and inclusive environment. For example, a student might speak thoughtlessly and offend other students. Keep a few strategies in mind for when tensions begin to run high:
- Don’t ignore the behavior. Ignoring a personal attack or a racist, sexist or otherwise offensive statement can be viewed by other students as tacit approval (and they’ll learn that they won’t be protected from these statements in the class).
- Focus on the issue at stake, not on the student who made the offensive comment. It’s the instructors responsibility to protect all members of the class, including the student who made the offensive remark. To encourage students to focus on the more general topic, Lee Warren recommends responding with questions like, “Many people feel this way. Why do they hold such views? What are their reasons?” or “Why do those who disagree hold other views?”
- “Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance,” reminds this helpful PowerPoint on “Difficult Dialogues.” Sometimes a student might make that they don’t know is offensive. In my classes, for example, students who are non-native speakers of English have used outdated language that seems racist. It’s been easy to gently correct them.
- Stay calm (or at least pretend to be!). If you can avoid appearing rattled, you’ll model how to continue a dialogue in a tense situation.
- Have students step back and reflect. Tell students the issue is important, and you want to give them time to think about it. This give you the chance to calm down and collect your thoughts as well! For example, you might ask them to think about the causes of the tension and their own reactions, and have them take a few minutes to write out their responses before restarting the conversation.
Preventing Hot Moments
Hot moments are more likely to escalate when individual students feel marginalized, attacked, or otherwise excluded from the conversation. I’ve found a few suggestions helpful for making a classroom feel more inclusive:
- Plan your syllabus with a diverse classroom in mind. Include multiple viewpoints and scholars from different racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds on a reading list. Some instructors include a nondiscimination policy or trigger warnings on their syllabi, and then review them verbally on the first day of class. These tipsheets have more advice: “Ways to Create an Inclusive Classroom Environment” and “Teaching in Racially Diverse College Classrooms.“
- Offer a variety of ways for students to participate, by switching up your question style during class discussions and by designing different types of assignments and classroom activities.
- Make materials easily available. Students feel excluded if the textbooks are prohibitively expensive or if they have to spend a great deal of time accessing them (remember that many CUNY students work full-time and/or care for families). Consider assigning lower-cost textbooks or open source materials.
- Clearly communicate your expectations for classroom behavior, and set discussion guidelines early in the semester. Examples include “critique ideas, not people,” “do not interrupt,” and “offer evidence in support of opinions” (more examples here and here). Then, continue to model behavior for productive and inclusive discussions throughout the semester.
- One first-day-of-class icebreaker is to let students determine these discussion guidelines themselves. Break students up into groups, and ask them to brainstorm some groundrules, along with “consequences” for breaking them. “Be prepared to negotiate on this; they may recommend harsher penalties than you want to enforce,” caution Sue Jacobs and Sheila Kennison (I’ve tried this strategy myself, and had students recommend that “anyone who interrupts a peer must bring snacks for everyone the next class meeting”).
Getting Help for Dealing with Disruptive Students
Of course, the occasional student is purposefully disruptive, and deliberately makes aggressive and/or offensive remarks. As soon as you notice the pattern of behavior, start maintaining written documentation (include names, dates, behavior, and your intervention/response).
If you’ve already addressed the issue yourself and the student continues the behavior, it might be best to seek outside help. First, contact your department chair. The next step would be to contact the appropriate office within the student student services department at your campus. At Hunter, for example, the Behavioral Response Team is there to provide assistance.
