Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Arlene Brett Gordon
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
Behavior Assessment System for Children, Piaget, SPSS, bullying, character education, classroom behavior, cognitive processes, community outreach, conflict resolution, decision-making skills, discipline referrals, disruptive behavior, harassment, middle school students, middle schools, personality self-report, school violence, self-esteem, student observation system, teacher modeling, teacher rating scales, violence prevention programs, violent behavior reduction
Abstract
The problem addressed in this dissertation was middle school students’ engagement in school violence. The goal was to decrease middle school students’ engagement in school violence. For the purpose of this study, school violence was operationally defined as bullying, disruptive behavior problems in the classroom, harassment, and teasing. Evidence of the problem within the school environment included results from the school’s discipline referral listing, teacher rating scales, and student’s self-report of personality. The pr-test and posttest results for this study were concluded with the use of the Behavior Assessment System for Children teacher rating scale and student self-report of personality. The Behavior Assessment System for Children student observation system was used for posttest results after 8 months of the program implementation. Teachers and students who participated in this study completed the teacher rating scale, students self-report of personality, and the student observation system. The pretest and posttest data for discipline referrals were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, Inc., 2000).
The solution strategies applied to the problem of this study were character education, teacher modeling, and conflict resolution. Character education developed self-esteem, decision-making skills, and community outreach abilities. Teacher modeling showed students nonviolent ways of handling situations. Conflict resolution strategies were based on Piaget’s cognitive process helping individuals to reach a consensus.
There were 3 expected outcomes from this study. All 3 outcomes were documented after an 8-month implementation period. Outcome 1 was data collected after implementation showed that for the 2002-2003 school year, all students experienced a significant reduction in discipline referrals compared to the 2001-2002 school year. Outcome 2 was scores from the teacher rating scale showed that 12 of 12 teachers perceived a reduction in violent behaviors in the 20 participants of this study. Outcome 3 was the student self-report of personality scale revealed that the majority of students believed that they reduced their violent behaviors. All 3 outcomes projections of this dissertation were met.