Discuss the relative effectivene

Discuss the relative effectiveness of two strategies for reducing violence

The Jigsaw Classroom Elliot Aronson (1979)

•      a cooperative learning technique designed to reduce prejudice and violence.

•      Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece–each student’s part–is essential for the completion and full understanding of the final product.

•      If each student’s part is essential, then each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.

•      Aronson advocated for jigsaw classrooms as part of an approach to defusing the social divisions underlying school violence.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP)

  • The program includes all staff, parents, and students in the school (universal program). The aim is to change the school environment as a whole while targeting individual students. Teachers receive training so that they can recognize and deal with bullying and implement cooperative learning strategies in the classroom. Includes supervision of the playgrounds and lunchroom. Students fill out questionnaires.
  • The aim is to identify bullies in elementary, middle, and high schools and help them and their victims. Adults should be positive role models

Study to use: Olweus (1993)

Discussion of relative effectiveness of school based programs

  • It seems that school-based strategies to reduce violence are not always very effective. It is probably because violence is a complex phenomenon that must be addressed at social, cultural, individual, and socioeconomic levels. It is necessary to look at what works when and with whom as well as what does not work (Guerra et al., 2006).
  • Ferguson et al. (2007) performed a meta-analysis of effectiveness of school-based anti-bullying programs and found that overall they were not very effective in reducing bullying or violent behavior in schools. The programs targeting at-risk youth were slightly better. The reason for this could be that bullying may allow some bullies to climb the social dominance hierarchy among children at the expense of other children. For such bullies the anti-bullying programs offer no incentives.