Definition, context and knowledge of school violence - What We Know About School Violence: Findings From Research and Practice

Sigrun K. Ertesvåg and Anne Sofie Samuelsen

“VISTA School Bullying and Violence: Taking Action” project

Bulgarian

English

training, module, violence, school, research

training module

Policy Makers, Teachers, Young People, School Directors.

1 - 20 pages

The contents of this unit are as follows:
- Description of the objectives of the document, which are to: increase knowledge and understanding of the concept of school
bullying and violence; increase knowledge of how to identify violent behaviour and separate it from less serious (e.g. disruptive) behaviour; become familiar with knowledge about the incidence of school bullying and violence in Europe; increase knowledge of the characteristics of perpetrators and victims of school bullying and violence; become familiar with the role of new technology in school bullying.
- Presentation of the facilitation skills to be developed through this unit, which are (1) knowledge and understanding of: up-to-date knowledge of main characteristics of perpetrators of school bullying and violence; the complexity of school bullying and violence; the range and causes of aggressive and challenging behaviour; the importance of a research based approach to intervention; (2) personal qualities and attributes include: being an effective communicator; having a good understanding of the complexity of school bullying and violence; having a good understanding of implementation strategies; being an effective trainer of all members if the school community.
- A list of preparatory reading materials.
- Summary of what we know about school violence.
- A sequence of activities to be implemented: Activity 1 Lecture: What do we know?; Activity 2: Classroom level; Activity 3 The school level; Activity 4 A whole school approach; Activity 5 Debriefing;
- References for further reading materials.
- Supporting resources: Appendix 1 which contains a bullying incident description; Resource 1 The classroom; Resource 2 The school; Resource 3 John; Resource 4: Suggestions for systemizing measures.

The quoted Module raises the awareness on some of the key issues regarding school violence.
The unit in focus stresses that there is a widespread popular view, fuelled by the media and by governments, and not necessarily supported by empirical evidence, that violence in schools has increased. According to the authors this sense of 'moral panic' is a counter-productive form of social control that does not address the underlying causes of the problem. Obviously there is a need to disseminate the available information on violence including, for example, incidence and causes. In the proposed unit are taken into account high-quality research findings on the nature and origins of school violence and the impact of best practices, innovative interventions and whole-school policies on reducing or preventing it. The unit offers participants the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of the concept of school bullying and violence; to identify violent behaviour and differentiate it from less serious behaviour; to increase their understanding of the characteristics of perpetrators and victims; and to familiarise themselves with the role of new technology in preventing school violence.
The material is suggested as an important and very practical tool, which, considering its availability in a number of language, can and should be broadly used.
The first activity in this unit consists of a masterfully developed power point presentation, again available in more than one language - Bulgarian, English and Dutch – which should be used for initial lecturing on the topic. The attached pdf contains a compilation of the reviewed material and the power point presentation.

http://www.vista-europe.org/downloads/Bulgarian/A2f.pdf

Binder what do we know of school violence.pdf

http://www.vista-europe.org/downloads/English/A2f.pdf