Dealing with Disruptive Behavior of Adult Learners

Abstract

The adult education literature on disruptive behavior of adult learners was reviewed and a survey on disruptive behavior of adult learners was conducted with adult educators. The findings are synthesized in a conceptual framework for understanding the types and causes of disruptive behavior, which fall into the categories of inattention, acting‐out, and threatening/harmful/violent. Factors that may contribute to disruptive behavior are the presence of a disability; history of an impoverished social background and/or of exposure to personal violence; personal stressors such as child care and job demands; and, in the learning environment, inadequate instruction, disconnection with the instructor and/or other learners, and ineffective intervention by the instructor. A set of guidelines is offered for preventing and managing disruptive behavior. It is further recommended that research be directed toward identifying interventions that are effective with specific adult education populations and how to train adult educators to deal with disruptive behavior.

Silence or Sanism: A Review of the Dearth of Discussions on Mental Illness in Adult Education

“…Two papers found in SCE covered mental health providers and consumers as coproducers of community health education (Ledger & Slade, 2015), and workbased curricula for postgraduate mental health students (Stewart, Campbell, & Wheeler, 2016). Two articles were found in 'New Horizons', addressing accommodating employees with PTSD (Hughes, Lusk, & Strause, 2016) and the psychic (psy-)disruptions of adult learners in the classroom (Dobmeier & Moran, 2008). One article located in AL considered veteran learners with PTSD in college classrooms (López, Springer, & Nelson, 2016).…”

The Impact of Childhood Deprivation on Employees’ Capacity to Perform at Work and Organizational Well-Being

“…In addition, higher learning expectations (e.g., being at the top of the class, winning first prize in a contest, showing the best performance at all times) from parents and teachers also exert a great deal of pressure with respect to competitive, restricted, and constrained behaviors. Adult learners are likely to be at risk for acting out (referring to behaviors of breaking rules and offending others) in learning situations if they have been exposed to a competitive environment throughout childhood, especially with talented siblings (Dobmeier & Moran, ). Stress and judgments by parents and teachers might have an effect on young adults and a continuous influence during adulthood (Rapport & Meleen, ).…”

“…Specifically, aggressiveness and depression in adulthood are related to verbal threats and physical abuse suffered in childhood, while low self‐esteem is associated with emotional abuse (Hall, ). The abusive experiences are significantly related to adult recurrence of depression, which can become an obstacle to job performance and continuous development (Kessler & Magee, ; Dobmeier & Moran, ).…”

“…Social class influences childhood socialization significantly (Shah et al., ). Poverty in childhood can lead to a lack of development of social skills, which is a major impediment to adults in continuous learning and development (Dobmeier & Moran, ). Further, an unstable home life, economic distress, and the absence of good parenting skills together can put children at high risk for the development of antisocial behaviors that increase the likelihood of exhibiting alcohol and drug abuse in adulthood (Connor, ; Healey et al., ).…”

An Interactive Session to Help Faculty Manage Difficult Learner Behaviors in the Didactic Setting

“…We have identified four distinct types of behaviors that can be difficult to manage in the classroom setting, including withdrawal and failure to engage meaningfully with the content, the monopolization of conversation, the disruption of an educational session with frequent interruptions or side conversations, and argumentative interjections. 8 Learning a framework to appropriately address these types of learner behaviors and gaining experience with handling these situations can significantly enhance the success of an educational session. While there is one MedEdPORTAL resource dedicated to challenges with learners in the clinical environment, 9 to our knowledge, there are no current resources available to teach faculty best practices for dealing with difficult learner behaviors in the classroom setting.…”