Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Jonathan Feinn
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
adlerian theory, administrative discipline referrals, applied dissertation, behavior intervention, California, Colorado, conflict resolution, conflict resolution program, counseling interventions, discipline records, disciplinary referrals, gross defiance, misbehavior, off-campus suspension, Oregon, peer mentors, positive outcomes, public schools, questionnaire, school discipline, school safety, serious acts of misbehavior, student behavior, student suspension, teacher perceptions, verbal abuse, violence, violence prevention, weapons on campus
Abstract
A review of the literature indicated that there were concerns from the public and public school officials regarding too many serious acts of misbehavior being committed in our public schools, which included recent events of violence in Oregon, Colorado, and California that resulted in multiple deaths and injuries of students and staff. During the 2001-2002 school year at this writer’s site, discipline records indicated that several students were suspended off-campus for fights, verbal abuse towards their peers, weapons on campus, and gross defiance towards school authority.
In order to combat the amount of episodes of serious acts of misbehavior, 30 students who had engaged in several acts of misbehavior during the 2001-2002 school year were selected to participate in a conflict resolution program. Their discipline records indicated that they had accrued an average of 11 off-campus suspended days monthly and 98 administrative discipline referrals for the school year. The selected solution strategies were techniques from Adlerian and Glasser’s theories used in conjunction with a conflict resolution program.
At the end of the applied dissertation, the discipline records for 28 students (2 students had left the attendance area) showed that the students assigned to the conflict resolution program had a mean of 5.1days of off-campus suspended days per month for the length relating to serious acts of misbehavior at the conclusion of the program. School records also indicated 58 discipline referrals for the school year relating to serious acts of misbehavior, and 22 out of 28 students’ teachers indicated, through a questionnaire, that these students had not engaged in more than 2 serious acts of misbehavior during the 2002-2003 school year. These results indicate that, although a conflict resolution program might not be the only solution in decreasing serious acts of misbehavior, its implementation, with other strategies, could produce some positive outcomes.