Dear Fayyaz Ahmad Faize,

Your question concerns most teachers. There are plenty of ideas on how to deal with it.

It all comes to effective school and classroom management. Identifying the cause, seeking sollutions, implementing and evaluating.

Is it that they are tired and cannot concentrate?

Can we engage them in activities that will help them concentrate (I find online activities, role-play and game-alike projects helpful in these cases)

Can we motivate learners to talk about the class and benefit from their tendency to talk?

etc

There are plenty of ways to deal with it depending on the classroom and the school context

PS: I like your quote 'minimizing students' talking without annoying the students'. We cannot expect students not to talk at all and we should not annoy them. Indeed you have a point in that..

It's better to engage the students throughout the class

If the course is cover give some assignments and activity. Also deal intelligent students desperately giving more work will help .

thank you Karampelas for the feedback

Why not add discussion questions into the presentation? Students become more involved in their own learning. Student centred learning helps both the students and the teacher to focus on the topic.....

I may be of different opinion but its my technique first Teacher's should raised the interest of that topic with particular examples which is directly related to their life then they will automatically stop taking and try to listen and understand without taking.

On many occasions I have noticed that the conversations that the students establish are related to the topics that we are dealing with in classes, which shows the interest that they have in the educational process that takes place. Without a doubt, other times they are conversations that have nothing to do with teaching. Many times this situation is due to the fact that they connect to their electronic devices during class. Here one must look for strategies so that the students can get in tune with what we are teaching. It is a real challenge for students to connect with us, through the "pedagogical wi fi" that we generate.

Students talking to each other OR browsing their mobile devices, these are chief concerns and, from talking with colleagues, can be especially demotivating for new teachers and faculty. I try to focus on gett8ng the lesson structured in a way that engages, or becomes an active learning opportunit. I try not to spend more than 10 mins in front of any slides, and always try to engage the class in particular discussions with me, or with their peers. I’m reading books about humour and teaching, and I think the other message is to try to find a means of finding a personal connection, to create a real community of learning that also includes you in the mix. Overall, whatever techniques we use in our teach8ng, be it more group activity, application of interactive technology, it’s important to make a note of the impact... collect that data systematically and methodically and share notes and insights with your colleagues.

If students do not know how to behave in the class environment, it is a big problem. First of all, we have to teach our students how to behave in class otherwise all of our teaching activities going to be waste.

Every place has some rules even in coffeehouse or cinema but no rules in class :). I believe if there is no discipline in class we can not talk about teaching.

Are the learners always talking about their lesson? So if we don't want to minimize their talking time then we have to build an ambience of proper interaction relating to lesson.

In the new era of social media , I allow my college students to chat silently without disturbing the others in the class .

After all, they are all adults and responsible for their learning and success

In this case, it is better to give tasks to the learners and make them into groups so that they work collaboratively.

Hi ! Sometimes small quiz sessions, providing work sheets in the class with short exercises in the class after the lesson with immediate feedback can capture students attention and reduce the side talks to certain extents. Thanks.

How ironic that now the question is reversed now 2 years later.

If this issue interfering with teaching and affecting other students, you cannot leave it or give it a blind eye. Discuss this concern with other teachers and students representatives. In small groups, we have ground rules, and you should be aware of how you use ground rules. Ground rules should be raised in the first tutorial, and students should originate items. You could add one or two ground rules from your side as a teacher. However, remember that all these rules apply to teacher and students. For example, "arriving on time and being punctual", is not for students only, it is a rule that you have to apply. You have to be a role model for students in order to change their behaviour for the better. For the larger group (as in lectures), as I said earlier, discuss the concern with students and teachers and the college has to come with a policy. If you at your college succeed in applying ground rules at small group levels (such as PBL), I am sure from my experience you can extend this to larger groups.

I recommend reading the literature on ground rules and dysfunctional behaviour; we know that small problem if left unmanaged will grow and will lead to secondary issues that cannot be resolved. These rules apply to education, and they are similar to cracks that start small in buildings and overtime grow and deepen and could threaten safety if left unmanaged.