How to Deal with Difficult Learners

As a tutor, trainer, or assessor it’s inevitable that you may well have to deal with challenging learners in a professional training environment.

This article will give you practical advice on how to deal with challenging learners, difficult situations and other forms of conflict within a professional training environment.

What is a difficult learner?

We’re not referring to medical disabilities or people with learning difficulties who require professional support. In this context, difficult learners are challenging for the trainer or instructor. They may be disrupting the structure of the session, interrupting or dismissing the views of others, avoiding meetings/appointments, failing to communicate or even being purposely rude to the trainer or other participants.

All professional trainers will have encountered a learner showing challenging behaviour during their career. Perhaps the learner doesn’t want to be there – they’ve been sent on mandatory training, or perhaps they’re dealing with external stresses outside of your control, or maybe the training wasn’t exactly what they expected.

As a trainer, you will need to be confident when handing difficult learners, dealing with challenging behaviour and conflict resolution.

Try to find out what’s causing their behaviour

There could be a multitude of reasons why a particular learner is displaying challenging behaviour during professional training sessions. We’re all human after all and we’re all dealing with the inevitable stresses of life, work, relationships and finances. Learning how to be more compassionate in these situations can also help diffuse difficult behaviour.

However, in a training environment it’s important to also consider factors such as skill deficit, lack of resources, personality types, expectations and internal organisation deficiencies. It is important to build rapport with your learner so that they feel comfortable to communicate with you. It is much easier to have open, adult conversations if there is a good relationship between you.

A learner’s personality may play a large role in their attitude towards training in general, either positively or negatively. The learner may lack confidence, have generally poor communication skills or have difficulty with emotional regulation for an array of different reasons.

As a trainer, if you can better understand the cause of their challenging behaviour then you can be better equipped to handle it. In our Professional Learning Workshop we explore Transactional Analysis – how you communicate with someone can influence how they respond. For example, the learner who has been told they have to attend the training by their manager (parent) responds by being disengaged and disinterested (child).

It is up to you then to bring them back to the “adult” state by acknowledging how they are feeling, paying them a compliment “thank you for coming” and encouraging them to take part in the session.

Poor skills or poor attitude?

Having a one-to-one conversation with the individual is a natural approach, however the focus should be on listening to them. You can prompt discussion by asking open-ended questions such as “How are you finding [this topic] so far?”, “What are your feelings about the upcoming assessment?” or “What are you hoping to get from this course?”

The primary goal of this discussion is to listen and then determine whether the difficult behaviour is mostly due to lack of skills/confidence or poor attitude.

Lack of skills can be addressed in a structured way to suit the individual’s learning requirements. But poor attitude on the other hand needs a tailored approach depending on the individual concerned.

It may well be the case that a learner with poor attitude is not fully aware of how their behaviour affects others – it’s not your place to tell them that they’re disruptive, as it may be embarrassing for them. Instead, show them respect and compliment their work as this shows that you’ve paid attention to them and noticed their efforts.

Their attitude may come from having a misundertanding of expectations about the course. So always be sure to check at the start of the course they know why they are there, what they have signed up for and how long it will take. Ensure they know what is expected of them in terms of commitment.

Be Assertive

Being assertive is not the same as being aggressive.

As the tutor/trainer/assessor – you are the primary ‘figure of authority’ within the room and you’re giving the direction to learners. This practice requires assertiveness so you can give clear direction to your learners.

When you’re dealing with a situation of conflict or handing a challenging learner, assertiveness allows you to make clear and fair decisions and maintain a positive environment for all learners.

Spontaneous conversations are a natural occurrence in learning environments, especially if the learners know each other or work together.

If you’re running a session and one learner is constantly interrupting you or adding to what you’re saying with extra nuggets of information which interrupts the flow, turn it into a brief discussion instead! But instead, direct the opening question to others in the room. If the discussion does not fizzle out after a couple of minutes, draw everyone’s attention back to the topic and move on.

In most cases, these individuals may change their behaviour after being given some additional attention, so by allowing them to have their say for a short period of time could be helpful. It’s important that you’re assertive in including others in the discussion, facilitating any spontaneous conversations so they remain on topic and ensure they don’t take up too much extra time.

Related: 8 Qualities of an Effective Trainer

Things to avoid when dealing with difficult learners

Excessive professional or personal criticism

It won’t be helpful to criticise learners who are exhibiting challenging or difficult behaviour. Consider the potential cause of this challenging behaviour – would criticism really help right now?

Counter aggression or arguing

If you’re dealing with someone showing aggressive behaviour, any form of counter aggression, whether its verbal or using body language will only be received negatively. Remember that arguing will not solve the issue, instead, ask the individual what they want to do and offer your support. Engage but don’t confront.

Patronising or ‘talking down’ to

Most people do not respond well to being patronised, as I’m sure you can appreciate! We’ve previously mentioned that trainers are often automatically considered the figure of authority within a room, but any implied respect with quickly dwindle away if you using patronising language to address learners, even if they are showing difficult behaviour. (This, in Transactional Analysis is the “Parent” state and it often means learners will respond in a “child state”. )

Don’t take it personally!

It’s extremely unlikely for a challenging learner to have a problem with you personally. Don’t forget about your own emotional wellbeing.

You’re not responsible for their behaviour or actions. Their behaviour is not within your control and it does not reflect upon your own professional skills as a trainer. All you can do is manage the situation, but you can’t be expected to change the way someone thinks.

Dealing with difficult learners: Further support and training

Panda Education and Training’s qualified training team have extensive experience working in vocational, work-based and community education, provide high quality training for tutors, trainers and learning and development practitioners.

We have a workshop to help you “Deal with Challenging Learners” that will enable you to:

• Identify a range of potential difficulties experienced with learners and employers
• Explain how our relationship style with our learners affects their response to us
• Manage conflict with learners and employers through use of language
• Use techniques with learners and employers to communicate assertively