Sometimes getting the right answer is not the answer we wish to hear. I recently taught a class on writing and I discovered that while most of the people, attending the class, were there to learn something, some were there to antagonize the rest of the class. Hecklers come in all sizes, ages, and descriptions. You can't look at each person entering your classroom, immediately identify them, and get rid of them so you have to wait. When you are 100% sure of which ones are the culprits, you have to go into action. Now the rub. If you are sure who they are, and generally they leave little doubt, the first thing you have to identify is whether they are helping or hindering. Sometimes the heckler causes the rest of the class to take a bit of pity on the instructor and comes to his/her defence. This does not help however, because before the subject being taught is paramount, it is derailed by the thought that the insructor can't hold his/her own in the situation, i.e. faith is lost in the instructor. If the heckler is one that imitates some comedian he/she likes, it comes out quickly and no one laughs, but rather the students immediately identify who the heckler imitating and pays no attention to him/her. The heckler has lost face and either becomes a working member of the class, or just does not return. For me the best approach has been to ignore them. Getting into a verbal battle with a joker is a good way to become the joker yourself. His/her self appointed job is to belittle you and what you are trying to accomplish. Your job is to overcome the situation, or even better, to bring them into the class as a real student. I have found an indirect approach that has worked for me is pretending to appreciate this person. I try very hard to keep close eye contact with him/her. I also tend to direct many questions to that person for their answers and/or opinions. After they give thier answers I ask them what reference I might get from them for additional informatin regarding the subject. It is soon discovered this person has very little knowledge of this, or any other subject and dislike have the spot light now thrown on them. Another sucessful direction I have used it to ignore the person by not responding to his/her questions. I have suggested that another person in the class answer his quest, and I try to pick out someone in the class that will require sympathy from the class, just in the case they answer it incorrectly. A firm and quick answer to some of these absurd questions is, "Not knowing to a positive degree of certainty, I would hesitate in making my response." You can't use this over and over of course, but when I do use that answer, I smile broadly and look directly at the perpetrator. Everyone in the class can see that I have given him/her a dignified answer that requires no answer from them. The rest of the class generally giggle, laugh, or just say, "Gosh I'm going to write that down, I like that answer and it fills a lot of voids." Oh, by the way, I can thank my brother for that answer as he used it a lot when he workd for the state as an inspector for highway construction where all the guys were big and burly and had an answere for everything...well almost everything.