Student+&+Instructor+Conflict

Sometimes, conflict arises between students and the instructor. What can be done to mediate and effectively resolve conflict in a Web-based class? The next section of the class wiki will present examples, research, and best practices on how to mediate conflict in Web-based classes. This session, you will be graded for the quality of your contribution to the wiki page. What you place on the wiki related to this page will be up to you. See the Wiki Rubric in Doc Sharing for the criteria your grade will be based on.

**Example of conflict**

Some of the scariest examples of teacher-student conflict are seen in the face-to-face classroom. In an article from //The Chocolate Box// website (http://muteaches.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/teaching-tip-10-classroom-conflict-classroom-climate/), the author describes a situation that occurred in 2010 at a university in Milwaukee. The student was upset about an question on a test and proceeded to be very abusive verbally to the teacher and other students. The student made threats to the individuals in class and the instructor called campus police. The student was then forcibly removed from the class, there is a YouTube video of the event but I caution you that there is foul language ([]).

Fortunately, in the online classroom there is no immediate threat of violence but conflict can occur. A book by Ko & Rossen //Teaching online: A practical guide// (2010) dedicates an entire chapter to special issues in classroom management. The majority of the chapter deals with disruptive students, the authors describe 4 examples of disruptive students: the know-it-all, the mutineer, the belligerent student who hasn't kept up, and the belligerent student on the attack. In each case, the best course of action in response to these students is a personal email explaining the proper netiquette that should be followed in online correspondence.

**The-know-it-all**: This student will contradict the instructor and usurp the instructors authority in class. **The mutineer**: complains about the instructors teaching methods and tries to pull others on their side. **The belligerent student who hasn't kept up**: this type of student is does not participate for a while then comes back into the picture frustrated that they don't understand and tries to pass off the issue onto the instructor. **The belligerent student on the attack**: this type of student makes rude remarks to the instructor and/or other students.

Ko and Rossen also describe students that may not be classified as disruptive that may create conflict, they are the noisy student, the controller and the "must-have-an-A student".

The best way to deal with a noisy student is "to give him or her some personal attention in the form a of personal email. Sometimes a noisy student is just feeling a bit lost and anonymous, and wants some individual attention" (Ko & Rossen, 2010, p. 344).

The controller is the type of student that requests materials and reading lists ahead of the scheduled course opening. This can be handled administratively or through an email. Administratively, the student should not get special access to course materials before other students, the course shell can be opened to all students at the appropriate time. A quick email to the student informing them of the date of access to the course shell and inquiring of their intentions of getting information early is the best way to approach this type of student (Ko & Rossen, 2010).

The "must-have-an-A student" is the most intimidating student in an online course. Ko and Rossen have this advice for dealing with such a student. "In any case, those words, 'have to get an A in this course,' should definitely raise your antennae. Meet such declarations with firm, objective statements about your grading criteria and standards, combined with a mild rebuff: //Thank you for your note. It is good to see that students are motivated, but there are no guarantees that any particular student will receive an A in this class. . . To do your best in my class, follow the guidelines and schedule in the syllabus and pay attention to the rubrics for all assignments" (2010. pp. 355-356).//

Ko, S., & Rossen, S. (2010). //Teaching online: A practical guide//. New York, NY: Routledge.

Research

In a research article by Myers, Bender, Hill and Thomas (2006), the authors collected data from over 200 psychology faculty members to investigate their demographics, experience with conflict in the classroom, their successes in managing conflict and how they interacted with the students. Research shows that conflict is "associated with instructors' choice of teaching methods, their demeanor and how they respond to challenging situations. . . Hostile conflict related to whether faculty expressed care towards the students, communicated respect, behaved sensitively, and remained warm and engaged" (p. 184). More specifically the research showed that their most conflict-laden courses had "an average enrollment of 37 students. Faculty indicated that they primarily lectured in this class (58.3% of class time devoted to lecturing) rather than using discussion or active learning techniques (26.1% and 15.6 % of class time, respectively)" (p. 182).

Best Practices

Bender & Dittmer (2006) describe five best practices for dealing with difficult online learners to avoid student-teacher conflict, they are: skill variety, task identity, task significance, flexibility and feedback.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**Skill variety:** "encompasses the degree to which assignments require a variety of tasks and activities involving the use of different skills and talents of the individual learner" (2006, p. 1). This best practice is similar to using multiple intelligences and different learning styles when developing the learning activities. This ensures that students will be using several senses or skills to build knowledge about the content and eases frustration.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**Task identity:** "involves the degree to which assignments require the completion of an identifiable piece of work. This means doing significant projects or single assignments from beginning to end with a positive visible outcome" (2006, p. 2). The importance of this best practice is to show the student that the assignment has a concrete beginning and end and making sure the assignment is specific and not vague.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**Task significance:** "hinges on whether the learner sees the work as having a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people" (2006, p. 2). Relevance is the key to this best practice. When a student sees the relevance of an assignment they are more likely to complete it with satisfaction versus when it is just busy work.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**Flexibility:** "implies giving freedom, independence, and discretion to the learner in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in executing it" (2006, p. 2). Giving the student a choice, especially adult learners, will make them feel like they have control over their learning. This will help them associate the learning activity with meaningful learning.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**Feedback:** " is a necessary dimension that looks at whether carrying out the activities required by the assignments results in learners obtaining information about the effectiveness of their performance" (2006, p. 2). Giving constructive criticisms or feedback lets students know you care. This in turn will also build community and relationships between the instructor and the student. If all the student sees is a grade without feedback they will sense the instructor doesn't care, this will give the student the same attitude.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Bender, S. L., & Dittmar, E. (2006). Dealing with difficult online learners: Two perspectives, five best practices and ten difficult learner types. Retrieved from: http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jul_2006/articles05.htm