Free Critical Thinking On Critical Issues In Our Schools

The introduction section of this paper will provide the general information about the issue of bullying. It is evident that victimization is prevalent in many schools in Texas. The impacts of bullying is harsh, ranging from emotional damage to physical damage. Additionally, the individuals who bully others and those who witness others being bullied can also be negatively affected. According to Pepler et al. (2004), the impacts that are associated with bullying are always negative. The impacts are generally mental but can lead to improbable actions by the affected. Thus it is signifigant for individuals who are oppressed to be heard and develop a method to stop the cycle of bulling in today’s schools. This research then answers the question: How do teachers handle bullying in their classroom in todays world?
The literature review will provide the areas of the paper that have been previously studied and the progress that has been made in that field of study. Teachers in the modern classroom have to handle some form of bullying almost daily. Once the teachers identify the instance of bullying in school, they should not ignore it. This is the mistake that most teachers make today. The teacher should document the issue on a step by step basis so as to determine the real issue. The teacher should then encourage the students to talk freely and remind the pupil that they will not be judged based on the report provided. The instructor should then ask the student to provide what the impacts of bullying has inflicted on them. By establishing rapport with the learner, the teacher can identify the probable solution. If the bullying that is happening is through the social media platforms, then the teacher should guarantee that the accounts of the perpetrators are closed immediately.
There are various actions that can be implemented to discourage bullying. According to McGrath (2007), punishment is one certain action that can be implemented. The students who bully others can be punished by expelling them from the school. The other action that has to be undertaken is to ensure that the student bullying the other one is required to apologize. In some cases, the bullies do not know what they are doing. Another action that can be done is to provide the students who have been bullied with therapy classes to help them comprehend the ordeals that they have gone through. This helps them recover from the mental problems that they may be facing. If the students have resorted to abusing drugs, then they should be provided with rehabilitation facilities (Heath et al. 2013).The paper will conclude by summarizing the main points that have been stated in this paper.

Literature Review

Bullying is a serious problem in learning institutions. Studies have been undertaken to examine the extent of bulling problems and the prevention programs to help curb this problem. Ma (2001) undertook a study on bullying in schools and established that bullying prevention programs are important since they make schools much safer for students and hence promote learning. The role of teachers in preventing bullying has been found to face numerous challenges. A study done by American Federation of Teachers (2000), established that only four percent of students are courageous enough to inform a teacher about bullying hence making it difficult for teachers to identify bullying and deal with it.
A study done by Harris &Petrie (2002), established that most students do not report bullying since 43% of students surveyed did not believe that school personnel had an interest in trying to stop bullying. Additionally, these researchers found out that when teachers spend most of their time trying to deal with bullying, they end up losing concentration on their teaching duties which subsequently affects their teaching duties. McCartney (2005), found out that when students do not tell teachers about bullying experiences they limit what teachers can do to stop this problem.
According to The American Federation of Teachers (2000), Teachers can assist in preventing bullying through the use of the Olweus program. According to this program teachers can help in dealing with bullying by enforcing rules against bullying in the classroom setting, take part in regular classroom meetings to discuss bullying with students and have meetings arranged with parents so that the parents get involved in preventing bullying. The classroom meetings with students need to have role plays through which teachers can teach about bullying and make students take an active role in preventing bullying. Research on the efficacy of the program has shown that this program has the ability to bring down bullying by about 50% if teachers get involved in the program.
It is evident that when teachers get involved in anti-bullying strategies, they are able to enforce the ant-bullying policies and strategies and hence bring down the level of bullying. Additionally, studies have established that teachers are important players in preventing bullying since it is through them that students can develop a level of trust which will make students to reduce bullying incidents.
Stevens, DeBourdeaudhuij, & Van Oost, (2000) undertook a study on the effectiveness of bullying programs and found out that teachers are important components for the programs to work especially when teacher involved in bullying programs take place during the elementary years. Teacher involvement and role in preventing bullying has been found to be more effective during the early education years for children than in middle and high schools. The study found out that since students interact with few teachers during their early years of education, the involvement if teachers in implementing anti-bullying programs makes the messages consistent and effective to students. Bullying has been established to increases at higher levels of education and hence early interventions are usually effective since they make learners to be responsible and have a caring attitude towards each other rather than been aggressive towards each other.
Another study undertaken by Ross (2002), found out that counseling at the classroom level is an important intervention measure to handling bullying by teachers. According to this researcher, teachers need to be trained on counseling skills so that they become important counseling agents for the school when dealing with bullies and victims at the classroom level. Counseling services have been found to be effective for students who are concerned with the bullying whether the students are victims, perpetrators of by standers. Teachers need to develop skills on identifying the motivation of bullies and victims in the whole process of bullying at the classroom level. Through engaging students in counseling sessions, a teacher is able to uncover why some students are more susceptible to bullying as victims and why are more likely to be perpetrators.
One important thing teachers should do is to make it clear to students during classes that bullying is not condoned and also educate students on the consequences of bullying to the victims and the perpetrators. Teachers are required to act quickly when they identify any bullying incidences in the classroom.

Methodology

Research Design
The following study will be undertaken using the quantitative research methods in order to come up with the findings of the study. Quantitative research has been found to be important on examining research on bullying hence can generate research findings that are dependable, credible and reproducible.

Population and sampling procedures

The target populations for the study are all teachers in elementary, middle, level and high schools. The researcher aims at selecting 80 respondents as the sample for the study. The researcher will use stratified sampling methods to arrive at a sample that will contain elementary school teachers’ middle level school teachers and high school teachers.

Data Collection

In order to collect data on the topic under study, the researcher will use a survey. The researcher expects the participants in the study not to be geographically dispersed and hence will use questionnaires as the method of data collection. The researcher will use questionnaires to collect data from the respondents. The researcher will mail the questionnaires to the respondents in order to save the cost of undertaking interviews in the survey.

Ethical Considerations In The Study

The researcher will ensure they seek consent from the research participants before the participants are allowed to take part in the study. Additionally, the researcher will ensure that information given to them is kept in complete a secrecy and is confidential in order to uphold the privacy of the participants. This will be done as a means of ensuring that ethical standards guiding researcher are complied with by the researcher.

Data Analysis

The researcher will use Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyze the quantitative data collected from respondents. The data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics that will generate the measures of central tendencies in the study.

References

Pepler, D. J., Rigby, K., & Smith, P. K. (2004). Bullying in schools: How successful can interventions be? Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press.
McGrath, M. J. (2007). School bullying: Tools for avoiding harm and liability. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.
Heath, M. A., Dyches, T. T., & Prater, M. A. (2013). Classroom bullying prevention, pre-K-4th grade: Children's books, lesson plans, and activities.
American Federation of Teachers. (2000). Building on the Best, Learning from What Works: Five Promising Discipline and Violence Prevention Programs. Washington, D.C.: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/ wwdiscipline.pdf.
Dupper, D. & Meyer-Adams, N. (2002). Low-level violence: A neglected aspect of school culture. Urban Education, 37 (3) 350-364.
Educational Research Journal, 38 (2) 351-370.
Harris, S. & Petrie, G. (2002). A study of bullying in the middle school. NASSP Bulletin 86 (633) 42-53.
Heath, M. A., Dyches, T. T., & Prater, M. A. (2013). Classroom bullying prevention, pre-K-4th grade: Children's books, lesson plans, and activities.
Ma, X. (2001). Bullying and being bullied: To what extent are bullies also victims? American
McCartney, M.P. (2005). Surveying the Bullied to Set Policy. (February 2005). The Education Digest, 70 (6), 14-15.
McGrath, M. J. (2007). School bullying: Tools for avoiding harm and liability. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.
Pepler, D. J., Rigby, K., & Smith, P. K. (2004). Bullying in schools: How successful can interventions be? Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Ross, D. (2002). Bullying. In J. Sandoval (Ed.), Hanbook of crisis counselling, intervention, and prevention in the schools (electronic version) 2nd ed. (pp. 105-135): Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates
Shellard, E., (2004). Safe and Secure Schools. ERS Focus On . . ., Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service.
Stevens, V., DeBourdeaudhuij, I., & Van Oost, P. (2000). Bullying in Flemish Schools: An Evaluation of Anti-Bullying Intervention in Primary and Secondary Schools. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 195-210.