This is a presentation, which is based on the Webinar Dealing With Challenging Learners. I attended this Webinar on the BBC English site, and it was very useful. Thus, I have decided to make this presentation. The ideas found in it belong to the presenter of the Webinar, Marie Deleney.

1. Webinar
Dealing With Challenging Learners

2. Beginning
Three names:
• Rob Lewis
• Phill Dexter
• Marie Deleney (presenter)

3. Rob Lewis
• Manager of Teaching English Website

4. Marie Deleney
• Director of The Learning Harbour, Cork,
Ireland
• a teacher, trainer and Educational
Psychotherapist

5. First Section
 What is a challenging learner?
 How would you describe him/her?
 Think of someone who finds you
difficult or challenging?
 How would he/she describe you?
 Are there any connections?

6. • Learners (Ls): scared,
uncooperative, passive, better
than others, shy, difficult to
control ,arrogant
• Teachers (Ts): arrogant, too
critical, stubborn, too ambitious,
lack of practice
• Same words come up
• Often the L is a little bit like the
T

7. • He never listens.
• He is always disrupting my lesson.
• She doesn’t care about learning
English.
• Are these descriptions or the
interpretations of the behavior?

8. • Tip 1: Describe the behavior which
you do not want and be specific about
what is required
• Need to train ourselves to describe
the behavior, since it might be worth
looking at
• Need to tell them what we want them
to think about

9. • Think about the last day you were
teaching.
• Think about the feelings you went
through during the day. Were the
feelings useful and productive for
teaching and learning?
• If not, what did you do about it?
– Look at the positive sides
– Have a break, etc.

10. • Participants: lack of engagement,
tired, excitement, pessimistic,
disappointed
• Teacher’s feelings are important
• A lot of emotions: from positive to
negative ones

11. • Tip 2: Manage your own state
• Be your best friend/coach
• At the end of the day write 6 highlights
• Write down all the things that are stressing
you
• Divide them into 2 lists- those you have no
control over and those you can control
• Set some positive triggers to change your
mood
• Practice positive self-talk
• Talk to trusted colleagues, agree how to off-
load. Avoid toxic dumping
• Manage your physical and emotional health

12. Second Section
• Learner’s behavior tells us what is
actually happening
• How is L’s behavior making us feel?
– psychiatric problems
– naughty boy
• Both of these involve pushing the L away
• Tip 3: Understand projection and
displacement

13. Displacement
• Unconscious Defence Mechanism
• A sign that some children cannot
manage their overwhelming feelings
and have not had experience of an
adult who can do that
• This can give us an indication of how a
child is feeling
• Can help us feel better about
ourselves and our actions

14. • Tip 4: Remember ‘It’s not meant for
me’
• It is meant for someone else but the L
cannot give it to someone else (e.g.
domestic violence)
• The L trusts you are an adult who can
manage that and like him/her
afterwards
• It is hard not to take things personally

15. The Learning Triangle
Teacher
Pupil Task

16. Resistant-Ambivalent Attachment
Pattern
• Continually want to get the T’s attention
• This L is always saying: me, me, me
• Badly behaved

17. Some tips:
 Avoid ‘colluding’ with need for constant
T involvement and thus ‘over-helping’
 Trust your brain
 ‘I’ll come later to check on you’

18. Avoidant Ambivalent Attachment
Pattern
• There are those Ls who do not want to
ask for help
• When they are stuck they need to ask
• The reason they do not ask for the T’s
help is the expectation of rejection
• These Ls could be saying ‘I don’t care’

19. • With these Ls the relationship should
not be developed too soon
• It should be developed through the
task:
– Internal control even praise
– Groupwork
– Metaphor work with
stories/pictures/drawings

20. • Tip 5: Teach your Ls about the Truine
Brain- the reptilian, mammalian and
neo-cortex thinking brain

21. Third Section
Teaching Strategies:
 Emotional health is important as physical
 Understand your emotional state and
have strategies for getting into a
positive state for both the T and the Ls

22. Classroom Strategies
• Tell them what they need to do
• Talking and walking-opposite of quiet (T)
• Think about the sequences
• Posture
• Be consistant in your usage of space
• Give positive reinforcement for good behavior:
• Acknowledge the positive intention
behind a behavior

23. Classroom Management
• Use the language of ‘need’ rather than
‘obligation’
• Focus and comment on Ls who are doing
what is required
• Use ‘thanks’ at the end of an instruction
• Build in perceived choices
• Distract, deflect at the point of
conflict

24. For more information on this topic
• Marie Deleney learningharbour@gmail.com
• www.wortpublishing.com
• www.caspari.org.uk
• Teaching Unteachable, October 2008, Worth
Publishing
• What can I do with the kid Who…2010. Worth
Publishing.

25. References:
• Delaney, M. (2012). Dealing with Challenging
Learners [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/webinars