Violence in the classroom concerns me as an educator and a mother of a three-year old. I know that it is a major concern in our school district. I am not surprised by the research I found on conflict resolution. Many young children begin forming peer relationships and begin learning to play with other children for the first time entering preschool. Students with disabilities, especially ones who may have problems communicating verbally, obviously will have a difficult time resolving conflicts in the classroom. These students may resort to more aggressive behaviors because of their difficulties in communicating and they may experience feelings of frustration.
The Making Choices program study revealed that older children are rejected when they resort to violence. I’ve noticed this in my own classroom. Students are usually afraid of and avoid children that display aggressive behaviors. They feel threatened by them and exclude them from play activities on the playground. I do agree with some of the findings of this study, however this program did have its limitations. It was not finished during the school year because of scheduling problems, teachers were allowed to rate student aggression, and the subjects studied were mostly gifted European-American students. In the future this same study should be conducted in a more culturally diverse classroom and teachers should not be the only observers rating aggression. Teachers may be biased based on problem behaviors or discipline problems experienced earlier in the classroom.
The Responsive Classroom approach seems similar to a program we conduct in our school district called Second Step. It is a program taught by classroom teachers helping with bullying, communicating, and other social problems. Students are asked to role play different situations and give suggestions as to how problems can be solved. I believe in this program’s effectiveness. It helps open up the lines of communication in the classroom and it also helps me, as the teacher, become aware of situations that may occur on the playground or at home that students need to deal with every day. Obviously resolving conflicts between students is extremely important. We cannot ignore conflicts that occur in our classrooms. The research I have collected backs up the fact that students need to openly discuss problems and find solutions together to everyday problems.
The following sites are helpful references with ideas and activities to use in the classroom to aid in conflict resolution.
Conflict Resolution Definitions - has definitions of different types of conflicts
Conflict Resolution Lesson Plans - includes several conflict resolution lesson plans to use in any classroom
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Discuss classroom topics with your classmates or ask me questions.
4 comments:
I use the second step curriculum as well in my pre-k classroom. We use the puppets to demonstrate the concepts as well as doing role play. We hear many comments about their home situation as well as things that happen at school. The kids can not wait to see Impulsive Puppy and Slow Down Snail! Even at the pre-k level the children in my classroom come up with great solutions to help Impulsive puppy with his problems. I also think that it helps them throughout the rest of the day, weeks, and months. We often refer back to lessons we have done in the past. "Remember when Impulsive Puppy had that same problem with Slow Down Snail?" and other questions similar. By the end of the school year we even hear some of the kids using that line when they are helping a child who is having a problem. It's a great program...we don't do everything as it is scripted; I really use it as a resource when there is some problem in the classroom.
Good presentation of application.
This relates to the programs you present previously from resources.
I agree with your opinion about the subjectivity of the "Making Choices" study. I feel that a teacher should be one of the key componets in gathering data about the frequency of behaviors, but as a human, he/she, is prone to make generalized subjective comments/assessments. How could they not? They spend approximately six hours with the child five days a week for nine months. I agree that outside observers should be used to give an additional perspective to the situation. In my opinion the child, teacher, and the neutral observer's perspectives are vital in recording the most accurate data.
I have daily class meetings and discuss conflict resolution scenerios then. They aren't scripted and are student driven. These meetings are brief and relaxed. The students seem more comfortable when we sit in a large group on the floor and share. Sometimes I have to stop conversation, and encourage them to finish their thoughts in their journals, so that we can get back to the 3 R's.
I think that classroom agressive ness is unecessary.I think that it should be solved as you said let the class tell you how it should be solved then if we cannot think of anything then you can tell us waht you think you should do!!!
From your best student Hannah,Labrie
Post a Comment