Critical Tools for Constructive Classrooms

1. Basics of Conflict ManagementCRETE Day 2 TrainingTricia S. Jones, Ph.D., Dept. of Psychological Studies in Educatione-mail: tsjones@temple.edu

2. Critical Tools for Constructive Classrooms • Understanding Needs Based Conflict • Positive Discipline • Conflict Styles • Collaborative Negotiation

3. Basic Needs • Love and Belonging • Power • Freedom • Fun • Safety

4. The Nature of Conflict • Conflict is “a disagreement between two or more people who have differences in goals or methods for dealing with a situation” • Normal • Natural • Necessary

5. Functional (helpful or constructive) Open Honest Calm Focused Flexible Energizing Creative Dysfunctional (not helpful or destructive) Closed Deceitful Tense Proliferation Rigid Draining Stupifying Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict

6. Conflict Styles • Conflict styles are the predominant ways that people deal with conflict. • Most people rely on one or two styles that are often defined by emphasis on concern for the self or concern for the other. • The goal of an effective conflict manager is to be able to use any conflict style when the situation demands.

7. Conflict Styles • Five Styles of Conflict Competing Collaborating Concern for Self Compromising Accommodating Avoiding Concern for Other

8. Thomas and Kilmann’s styles • Avoiding: Avoidance can be either physical and/or psychological • Accommodating: meeting the needs of the other person but ignoring your own needs.

9. Thomas and Kilmann’s styles • Competing: a win-lose orientation in which you try to maximize your gains • Compromising: “Split the Difference” • Collaborating: Problem-solving style in which the parties work together against the problem.

10. When Each Style is the Best • Avoiding • When the issue is trivial to you • When there is no long-term relationship • When you are the low power party in a serious power imbalance • Competing • When the other will be very competitive • When important others expect you to compete • AND when the stakes are high

11. When Each Style is the Best • Accommodating • When the issue is trivial to you • When harmony in the relationship is all important • When you are the low power party in a serious power imbalance • When you want to build trust in the other by demonstrating a protection of their interests • Compromising • When there are truly finite resources • When there are no means to increase the divisible resources

12. When Each Style is the Best • Collaborating • When the issue is complex and requires creativity • When there is a long-term relationship • When their implementation of the decision is necessary

13. Principled Negotiation • Scholars from the Harvard Negotiation Project have suggested ways of dealing with negotiation from a cooperative and interest-based perspective. They call this approach “principled negotiation” because it rests on four assumptions or principles.

14. Separate the People From the Problem • As you identify the problem, make sure you can distinguish between the issues to be solved and the people involved. Try to: • understand their perceptions • monitor their emotions • communicate effectively

15. Focus on Interests NOT Positions • A position is a tangible outcome that someone argues for. An interest is the reason why that outcome is desired and an underlying concern about the problem. • there are usually multiple interests for any issue • you don’t have to have common interests to find a solution that meets them all • the more you understand your interests and the other party’s interests, the better able you are to find a solution or solutions that will produce mutual and lasting satisfaction.

16. Invent Options for Mutual Gain - Brainstorm • This is a process of creating as many solutions as possible BEFORE you evaluate them to decide which are the best options. • Otherwise, good ideas never have a chance to be suggested and discussed because people are too busy arguing over the first ideas introduced.

17. Find Good Criteria • Choosing a good solution or solutions (remember you can have more than one), depends on making sure that the criteria for solutions are considered legitimate by the parties. The criteria come from • interests already identified by the parties, especially common interests shared by all parties • external rules or policies that must be followed