Increasingly, children who learn good conflict-management skills find themselves negotiating with kids who would rather fight--even over minor matters like cutting into line, taking a pencil, or touching a classmate's desk. A Pittsburgh teacher has worked to create a physically and emotionally safe classroom and devised a Students Against Violence…

Reviews historical and currently available literature and resources on education for peace. Peace education is enhanced by a comfortable, stress-free classroom environment and by literature-based, creative-arts, compassion-building, and conflict-resolution activities. The teacher is the key element in creating the environment and modeling…

Peace Education is now considered by many as a viable curriculum that could be integrated into many school programs. This paper identifies and clarifies the role that peace education can play in the creation of a humane, nonviolent learning environment; highlights recent research on brain-based learning that holds significance for the inclusion of…

Project VIP (Violence Is Preventable) is a comprehensive research-based program designed to help children and young adults make smart choices about violence. It emphasizes the use of student-centered approaches to help develop strategies for conflict resolution and for avoiding violence. The student book is a workbook with a number of activities;…

After two years of a three-year evaluation of a violence-prevention program implemented in two elementary schools with 203 students, it appears that the program may produce a decline in conflict. However, its effects are less apparent for female students, whose conflict behaviors are less overt. (SLD)

This report delineates a series of interventions aimed at minimizing incidences of bullying in a suburban elementary school. The social services staff was scheduled to initiate an anti-bullying incentive in fall 2001 due to the increased occurrences of bullying during the prior year. The target population consisted of third- and fourth-grade…

A study evaluated a comprehensive school-wide program based on an effective behavioral support approach for preventing disruptive behaviors implemented in seven elementary schools. The program included a school-wide discipline program, tutoring, conflict resolution, and functional behavioral intervention plans. Schools showed positive effects on…

Noting that just as violent behavior is learned, so is nonviolent behavior, this instruction program is designed to help children in grades 2-4 learn to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. Through the program, children develop important skills of managing anger and choosing alternatives to violence, respecting different points of view…

This elementary school training manual is based on the School Mediation Program developed originally by Good Shepherd Neighborhood House to train students in grades 6 through 12 in conflict resolution and violence prevention through peer mediation. Extending the program to the younger grades gives an earlier opportunity to use peer mediation to…

Recognizing that violent behavior is a complex phenomenon that is manifested in many different ways, the focus of this paper is to inform the development and implementation of school-based violence prevention strategies. The Second Step Program of the Jefferson County Public Schools is highlighted as an example of a successful violence prevention…

Boston College Conflict Prevention Program techniques for relaxation and self-control were taught to middle-school students in two Boston schools. Preliminary results from teacher interviews revealed that students spontaneously used these methods to calm their "fight-or-flight" reactions in real conflicts. Results also indicated that…

This report describes the activities and outcomes of Project ACHIEVE, an innovative educational reform program targeting academically and socially at-risk and underachieving students. Project ACHIEVE began as a district-wide training program for school psychologists, guidance counselors, social workers, and elementary-level instructional…

Fighting violence requires a networking approach among schools, community, and parents. This article advises elementary school counselors: (a) focus on the causes of aggression; (b) identify children with the propensity for behaving aggressively; and (c) prevent aggressive responses in children and adolescents by introducing techniques and…

This outline presents a program designed to teach children "how" to think, not what to think--so as to help them solve typical interpersonal problems with peers and adults. Through games, stories, puppets, illustrations, and role plays, children learn a pre-problem solving vocabulary, feeling word concepts, and ways to arrive at solutions to…

Second Step, a research-based violence prevention program for kindergarten through middle school aged children, was implemented in several Jefferson County Public Schools. The objective of Second Step is to increase children's ability to identify with how others are feeling, take others' perspectives, and respond empathetically while decreasing…