External and internal conflict mangement in school

The background to our project were from a need that we have been identified in our schools; namely that many of our students seem to be unsuccessful in their studies. Students could failure in their studies and may not be able to complete their studies as planned. Reasons for that could include mental health issues such as anxiety and stress, inadequate study habits that could leave them unprepared for different assignments and tasks, as well as faulty time management skills which result in them not handing in their work on time. We wanted to learn more about what stress students and found out how we could handle stress in schools. We had defined stress problem in this project as external and internal stress that we need to handle. We have learned more about these problems by creating surveys that both students, teacher and staff have answered. We have analyzed these surveys and got a grip of stress that could affect schools’ result. In this project we wanted also to test different pedagogical methods that maybe could handle this stress. So, the background of this project was to find methods to cope with stress in schools for students and for teachers to find methods to deal with the stress.

By doing this project we have achieved our objectives in this project:. -Students ,teachers/staff and schools have got tools how to handle internal and external conflict in school. We made a final product, six quality model reports, home page were this tool of handle stress and the knowledge behind are presented. Teachers/staff have strengthened their professionalism they have worked with a method systematic proven experience and learned more about pedagogical issues. They have followed a quality model that helped to focus on the problem and using scientific methods like surveys, analyzing results, testing methods and evaluation. Even students have worked some part of this. All the participants have increased their knowledge in subjects like human rights, natural sciences, democracy, social and civic competences, by working with the pedagogical methods that we used in the LTT workshops about how to prevent prejudice, stop climate changes, stop bullying, strategies against stress to be more aware and stronger EU citizens and increased their levels in English. Teacher/staff and students have learned more about digital competences in this project for example they have worked whit photos, videos, eTwinning and presentations.

This project has created pedagogical materials to deal with internal and external conflicts that could be used in schools. With more knowledge on how to act when encountering conflicts associated with students’ mental health, motivation and procrastination we have got knowledge to handle conflict management in the different subjects in schools. We have compared, learning about different conflict situations and solutions from the participating schools and the local communities they represent, as well as including knowledge from global work and EU-level. We have got a deep understanding of how stress can affect school situations and also tools on how to reduce it. We have got better understanding for conflict management and participants have got a set of tools to navigate their lives, this project has given them tools to get better mental health but also got knowledge of how to act like a good citizen with respect for different people and respect for the environment. The project has got deeper knowledge in school subjects such as social science, natural science, language and culture differences. With this partnership between schools and associated partners we have developed an agenda of conflict management. The project result, like the home page and publication, could be tools for schools to improve their results of students’ failure and students’ participation in society and schools.

The concrete outputs for the project: Pedagogical material for schools to deal with external and internal stress in school. A final product - a booklet of our best methods on how to deal with external and internal stress, based on our work with the quality model. A home page where you can find information about the project. Films and presentations about different methods on how to deal with external and internal conflicts. For example, mediation in conflict situations, surveys and result about students’ stress With more knowledge on how to act when encountering conflicts associated with students’ stress, both external and internal students and teachers and overall organization schools got more tools to strengthen students’ mental health, motivation and avoid procrastination in their work. The students have got tools to manage stress in schools but also in their life. Overall achievement for the teacher’s professionalism had been strengthened by working with the quality model - discussing and documenting the problem, gather information, analyze the information, test methods that may solve the problem and last step follow up. The teachers and other staff that have been involved in this project have got deeper knowledge in pedagogical methods of how to handle external and internal conflicts in school. This knowledge could be used in their ordinary work in school.