Teaching Theory:
Problem Student Scenarios
• Use the following scenarios to determine how
you would deal with these in a classroom
situation
• Take a chance to review FERPA policies
• Dr. Jones has a class in which half the students
are at least mildly engaged, and the other half,
while not overtly disruptive or rude, are
inattentive in lots of little ways. That inattention
is disruptive to the class as a whole. The half of
the class that is engaged has started to get angry
with or talk back to the students who are more
inattentive, particularly during group
work. Should Dr. Jones continue to allow the
students to talk back to the other students?
What should Dr. Jones do?
• An assignment was due by the beginning of class
yesterday. You have a policy that you won't
accept late assignments of this particular type. A
few hours after class you received an e-mail with
the assignment attached from an absent student
who claimed that she was sick and didn't send in
the assignment on time because she was sleeping
off the flu. It's the beginning of the semester and
you’re trying to be nice and not appear
unsympathetic. What should you do?
• Dr. Pepper assigns an end of the semester
group project that includes making an
informational flyer/brochure and a 20 minute
presentation. She is having a lot of problems
with the groups she assigned. She has
received complaints about slackers not pulling
their weight. What can Dr. Pepper do?
• A student is taking your class the second time.
She was supposed to hand in a term paper a few
weeks ago, but all you got was 5 pages from
another course she took last year. You told her to
give you the real one. She said, "Oh, I can't
believe that you have a wrong paper. You should
get it by tomorrow." The student then
disappeared. What do you do?
• What do you do when a student claims to have
turned in a paper that you have no record of
receiving?
• You receive the following e-mail:
Dear Dr. So-and-so,
Hi! My child is in your Abnormal Psychology class. I
know that I have already talked to you about how she
should communicate with me about her work and how
it’s not really appropriate for me to try and talk about her
behind her back (which I’m doing now!), but I just want to
make sure that she’s coming to class. Please let me know
if she stops coming or doesn’t turn in any work because
we’ve told her that we’ll take her car away if she’s not
going to class.
Annoying Parent
What do you do? What do you tell the parent?
FERPA
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
• 4 Rights Granted to Students:
1. To inspect their educational records.
2. To amend their educational records if
they believe them to be in error.
3. To consent to disclosure of their
records.
4. To file a complaint with the FERPA office
in Washington.
• Records include:
Biographical info
Enrollment records
Grades
Schedules
• Can take the form of:
Printed Documents
Computer Screen
Handwritten Notes
• FERPA rights don’t automatically extend to
parents (regardless of age).
• Without student permission, parents don’t
have rights to review records.