Conflict Resolution

A number of conflicts can develop within a student’s personal life including problems in the classroom, at lunch, on the playground, or at home. Children deal with these problems based on schema and scripts they have developed in their long term memory. The long term memory holds all the experiences that children have had in previous years. Children are exposed, now more than ever, to violence on television, movies, and video games. Many times the problems they witness in the media are solved with aggressive tactics. If children are exposed to this type of violence then they develop these types of schema and scripts to solve problems their own problems. Violence has been a concern on the minds of many school districts around the country. Students need to be taught that violence is not the only way to solve a problem. If children are exposed to violence in the home at an early age, they tend to use violence to solve conflicts.

Teachers play a major role in demonstrating, practicing, and modeling proper ways to resolve conflicts. Many students look to them for advice on how to handle many situations they face. A teacher especially influences early elementary students’ problem solving (Malloy & McMurray, 1996). Generally, classroom teachers praise their students when resolutions are found (Shapiro & Watson, 2000). Students that are mutual friends are more likely to reach a conflict resolution on their own using problem solving strategies (as cited in Malloy & McMurray, 1996).
Not all students can use problem solving strategies easily. Students with disabilities, especially those that struggle communicating verbally, tend to go to a teacher for assistance when faced with a conflict (as cited in Malloy & McMurray, 1996). Children with low information processing skills use aggressive tactics to resolve conflicts and children with high information processing skills are less likely to use aggression (Nash, Fraser, Galinsky, & Kupper, 2003). These students may use aggression unconsciously, not knowing how inappropriate their tactics may be. The central executive, part of the working memory, is responsible for making decisions and solving problems. It pulls information from the visualspatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and the episodic buffer (Matlin, 2005). If students have visual processing or auditory processing difficulties they may have difficulties storing information leading to difficulties resolving conflicts and they may resort to aggression. Students that come from homes of a low poverty level generally are delayed in intellectual development, which leads to behavior and emotional problems (as cited in Rimm-Kauhman & Chiu, 2007). Results of a study conducted by Malloy & McMurray (1996) found that most student conflicts in an early elementary classroom setting occurred between a student with a disability and a student without a disability and most were resolved with the teacher’s help. Research has discovered that aggression is more commonly used by early elementary students to resolve problems (Nash et al., 2003). By late elementary, those children who use aggression to solve conflicts are not easily accepted by other children (as cited in Nash et al., 2003).

School districts look to programs that can be woven into class curriculum dealing with aggression and problem solving strategies. A program entitled Making Choices was piloted in grades third through sixth (Nash, Fraser, Galinsky, & Kupper, 2003). This program was composed of multiple units that included lessons designed to aid children in processing information, making friends, and adapting socially in the classroom environment (Nash et al., 2003). Researchers hoped that this program, through teaching better problem solving skills would help aggressive students, with low information processing skills, form positive relationships with other students and adults (Nash et al., 2003). Nonaggressive-accepted and aggressive-accepted students benefited from this type of program. Aggressive-rejected and nonaggressive-rejected students did not show improvements in social behaviors and friendships through use of this program (Nash et al., 2003).

Another program aimed at improving upon social relationships was titled the Responsive Classroom approach. This program focused on improving and promoting positive teacher-student relationships through daily class meetings, student involvement in creation of classroom procedures, and encouragement by the classroom teachers (Rimm-Kauhman & Chiu, 2007). Rimm-Kauhman & Chiu (2007) found that this program helped make the classroom a more comfortable place for children to share problems and concerns. Shapiro & Watson (2000) agree that conflict resolution depends upon open class discussion. An open class discussion develops problem solving strategies that students can share with each other. By frequently practicing problem solving strategies and role playing, students will gain the tools they need to use inside and outside the classroom (Shapiro & Watson, 2000).