A policy, alone, isn’t enough to stop bullying in schools. Despite the need, there’s been a small uptick altogether of sorts of bullying during recent years.
Bullying can appear as experienced basketball players routinely bullying newbies off the field, children have repeatedly stigmatized an immigrant class for their cultural differences, or a college student is suddenly abused and a group of locked up friends.
Bullying is happening everywhere, even in the best performing schools, and hurting everyone in it, from threatening targets to spectators and even the bullies themselves. Most bullying prevention programs specialise in raising awareness of the matter and administering consequences.
It has been seen that programs that believe in punishment and no tolerance were ineffective in controlling bullying in schools.
Programs such as peer mediation, which make young people responsible for conflict resolution, can increase intimidation (Adult victims of abuse are never asked to “work it out” with their tormentor, and youngsters have a further right to protections thanks to their developmental status.)
Bystander intervention, even among adults, only works for a few people—extroverts, empaths, and other people with higher social station and moral engagement.
Many approaches that educators adopt haven’t been evaluated through research; instead, educators tend to pick programs that support what their colleagues use.
We found two research-tested approaches that show the foremost promise for reducing bullying (along with other sorts of aggression and conflict). they’re a positive school climate, and social and emotional learning.
Building a positive school climate is often difficult to define, though possible to live it’s the “felt sense” of being during a school, which may arise from a greeting, the way a drag is resolved, or how people work together; it’s the heart and soul of the school, its quality and character.
The elements of a positive climate may vary, but may often include norms about feelings and relationships, power and the way it’s expressed, and media consumption.
Social norm engineering may be a conscious process that builds a positive culture among student peers and faculty adults that becomes self-reinforcing.
Sort of a healthy system, a positive school climate promotes optimal health and reduces the probabilities of dysfunction or disease.
Leadership is the key to a positive climate and stopping bullying at schools
Is bullying downgraded as a common ritual for children or viewed as harmful by peer violence? Do leaders understand that persistent and severe harassment can have lifelong negative consequences for persecutors, stalkers and bystanders ?
Are headteachers trying to promote the mental health of all children, or do they rely too much on the sanctions of misconduct? Do teachers empathize with their students and do they value the children’s feelings?
So are teachers prepared to fight bullying in schools? Some teachers themselves abuse students or show little sympathy for child abuse.
Teachers say that they have little guidance in classroom management and sometimes follow the disciplinary strategies they learned in their families as they grew up.
However, school climate reform must involve all stakeholders students and parents as well as administrators and teachers so that specific school problems can be addressed and a local culture preserved.
School climate assessments may be carried out periodically to track the impact of improvements.
Social and Emotional Learning SEL is well known and involves learning skills of self awareness, self governance, social awareness, responsible decision making and relationship management.
It it is believed that evidence based SEL methods can provide reliable and cost effective results.
Numerous meta analyzes, research reviews, and individual studies of hundreds and thousands of elementary and high school students show that SEL improves emotional well being, self regulation, classroom relationships, and good and helpful behaviors in students.
It reduces many problems such as anxiety, emotional stress and depression; reduces disruptive behaviors such as conflict, aggression, bullying, anger and hostile prejudice; enhances academic success, creativity and leadership.
A study of 36 first grade teachers found that when teachers were more emotionally sensitive to students, children were less aggressive and had more behavioral self control than the application of behavior management, which did not improve student self control.
The meta analysis showed that developing emotional skills protects against bullying; social competence and academic performance prevented him from becoming an oppressor; and positive interactions with peers have kept you from being the victim of the bully both victimized and victimized.
A number of longitudinal studies have demonstrated the positive effects of early SEL on middle age e.g., less divorce, less unemployment and even intergenerational effects.
People with emotional and social skills are more satisfied with their work and smoke less, show more positive emotions towards students, manage their lessons better and use more strategies that develop creativity, choice and autonomy students. Teachers say that they need additional SEL support to develop their emotions and social awareness.
Bullying at different age levels
SEL methods must be adapted to the level of development, because what is important and possible for children changes at different ages.
For example, preschoolers leave school the fastest, but the neurological material for self control is only growing.
Only then will the connections between the emotional circuits and more complex areas of the frontal cortex begin to ground isolate for faster communication, which will continue until the mid 1920s.
A SEL program such as PATHS or RULER that teaches children the language of feelings and strategies before implementing them can improve self regulation. Adults sometimes confuse normal development with bullying in schools.
For example, children start to reorganize their friendships in the middle of primary school, which can naturally lead to painful feelings and interpersonal conflicts.
However, this should not be interpreted as harassment that includes deliberate and repeated attacks when the force is unbalanced.
Regular development also involves experimenting with strength, and these normal dynamics should be safely geared towards developing a healthy sense of functioning rather than painful exercise on someone else.
Finally, the beginning of adolescence heralds the beginning of an increased sensitivity to social relationships, which is a particularly important period for developing the skills of friendlier and kinder relationships.
It is a harsh reality that bullying is at its peak these days. While some strategies work well for young children for example, advising them to tell a trusted adult, this option can fail for young people, with the waiting zone appearing to be around grade eight.
Young people need fewer didactic approaches and appreciate the need for autonomy, reaffirming their values and looking for meaning.
Physiologically, changes in the brain during adolescence offer a second chance to recalibrate their stress regulation systems.
This opportunity should be used constructively. The methods should also take into account individual differences between children.
SEL programs can also get confused by relying too much on one or two emotional regulation strategies, such as breathing or mindfulness. But children differ in character, sensitivity, strengths and weaknesses.
SEL Best Practices helps students find strategies that work best for them, strategies that are emotional and equal. The text is concrete, personalized, and culturally appropriate.
This approach requires unconventional flexibility from teachers. Finally, the approaches work best if they are not teaching or stand alone kits that end up in the classroom closet at the end of the year.
To be effective, skills must be fully integrated into the curriculum and throughout the day in all contexts and implemented by all adults, in other words, penetrating the ecosystem.
The work of the parents is also important . Adults face harassment in the workplace as often as children in school, among senior teachers and in the community. In other words, bullying is not just a childhood problem; it is a ubiquitous human problem.
And children are not immune to the wider social world harassment of children belonging to target groups in national policy debates has spread to national playgrounds. Ultimately, we need to change our understanding of the importance of children and their feelings.
Children are more likely to grow when we take advantage of their humanity and provide them with language, strategies, and values that help them identify, express, and thus regulate their feelings.
As parents, teachers and administrators learn again about the complex roots of bullying and adopt new strategies to deal with it, schools can become leaders. Children are counting on us.