Dealing with Conflict and Aggression in Classrooms through Cooperative Learning Technique

N

10

Student Attitudes; Conflict; Cooperative Learning; Family Structure; Teaching Methods; Aggression; Student Behavior; Adolescents; Violence; Cooperation; Competition; Goal Orientation; Adolescent Development; Identification (Psychology); Friendship

Demographic and socioeconomic shifts in nation's population and changes in the family structure have placed increasing demands on the schools. There is a pressing need to understand the factors that give rise to and maintain aggressive behaviours across adolescence and also suggest techniques for dealing with the increased incidence of aggression and violence. As suggested by the frustration-aggression theory (1939), the blocking of the goal directed behaviour leads to frustration which created the motive for aggression. Fear of punishment or disapproval may cause the aggressive behaviour to be displaced against some other target, or oneself. In the classrooms, the learning goals are structured to promote cooperative, competitive or individualistic efforts. In contrast to the cooperative situations, competitive situations are one in which students work against each other to achieve the goal that only one or few can attain. in the competition there is negative interdependence among the goal achievements; students perceive that they can obtain the goals if and only if the other students in the class fail to obtain their goals (Deutsch, 1962; Johnson &Johnson, 1989). This paper will discuss how the technique of cooperative learning can prove useful to overcome the root cause of conflict, aggression, intolerance which develops in the students. Through this technique, a positive interdependence could be developed among the group members for accomplishing the goal.

As Provided

8

2010

ED511415