Violence
in Schools:
Identification, Prevention & Intervention
Strategies
Instructor
Name: Dr. Karen Lea
Phone: 509-891-7219
Office
Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST
Monday - Friday
Email: karen_lea@virtualeduc.com
Address: Virtual Education Software
23403 E Mission Avenue, Suite 220F
Liberty Lake,
WA 99019
Technical
Support: support@virtualeduc.com
Introduction
Welcome
to Violence in Schools, an
interactive computer-based instruction course, designed to give you a better
understanding of school violence and increase your interventions strategies. Violence in Schools provides a foundational
understanding of violence and the motivational purposes behind aggression. The correlation with and impact of the media,
community and family upon violence will be investigated. The course teaches identification and
intervention approaches for working with out-of-control behaviors. In addition, each student will receive
information on available national resources for both parents and teachers. This course will help each person to increase
his or her understanding of violence, the motivations behind the use of
violence and specific strategies to minimize the occurrence of violence in a
school and community.
This computer-based instruction course is
a self-supporting program that provides instruction, structured practice, and
evaluation all on your home or school computer.
Technical support information can be found in the Help section of your
course.
Course
Materials (Online)
Title: Violence
in Schools: Identification, Prevention & Intervention Strategies
Instructor: Dr. Karen Lea
Publisher:
Virtual Education Software, inc.
2000, Revised 2004, Revised 2010, Revised 2013, Revised 2016, Revised 2019
Academic
Work
Academic work submitted by the individual
(such as papers, assignments, reports, tests) shall be the student’s own work
or appropriately attributed, in part or in whole, to its correct source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group
prepared) materials as if they are one’s own work is unacceptable.
Aiding
Honesty in Others
The
individual will encourage honesty in others by refraining from providing
materials or information to another person with knowledge that these materials
or information will be used improperly.
Violations of
these academic standards will result in the assignment of a failing grade and
subsequent loss of credit for the course.
Level of
Application
This
course is designed to be an informational course with application to work and
work-related settings. The intervention
strategies presented in this course may be generalized to all students
(pre-kindergarten through 12th grade) and adults. While an intervention may be geared toward a specific
age population, with minimal modifications an educator should be able to adapt the
strategy for his or her students.
As a result of this course, participants will
demonstrate their ability to:
·
Identify factors contributing to violent behaviors
·
Develop strategies to address school/community violence
·
Effectively intervene, provide safety and
minimize violent actions
·
Develop a “school violence” assessment with specific intervention
strategies
·
Assess the climate of the classroom and school, making the necessary
adjustments to increase safety
·
Address preventative methods within the school system for students
Course Description:
Anger management strategies have become an
important topic in schools, businesses, homes and
communities. Our society is inundated
with classes, books and counseling programs that explain various ways to
“manage anger.” Despite our best
attempts, aggression and violence are still on the rise. We regularly hear and read from various media
sources how dangerous our society has become, especially our youth population. This class will focus on developing new ways
of handling violence without getting involved in the typical power
struggles. During this course, each
person will learn specific strategies and practical ideas to aid in the
reduction of school violence. Key
intervention ideas for developing a civil climate within each school will be
presented, and identification and recognition of potential violence will be discussed. Included in this approach will be an emphasis
on safety for students and educators.
This course is not attempting to be a “cure all” or “fix it” approach, but will aid educators in their ability to develop
a safer environment in a school and community.
In addition, it will help each person feel more qualified and capable of
handling emerging violent behaviors within a school, home
or community setting.
As a student you will be
expected to:
·
Complete all four information sections showing a
competent understanding of the material presented in each section.
·
Complete all four section examinations, showing a
competent understanding of the material presented. You
must obtain an overall score of 70%
or higher, with no individual exam score below 50%, and successfully
complete ALL writing assignments to pass this course. *Please note: Minimum exam score
requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to
your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements
are.
·
Complete a review
of any section on which your examination score was below 50%.
·
Retake any
examination, after completing an information review, to increase that
examination score to a minimum of 50%, making sure to also be achieving an
overall exam score of a minimum 70% (maximum of three attempts). *Please note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by
college or university; therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to
determine what your minimum exam score requirements are.
·
Complete all course
journal article and essay writing assignments with the minimum word count shown
for each writing assignment.
·
Complete a course
evaluation form at the end of the course.
Chapter 1: Why We Have Violence in
Schools
1. Introduction
2. Statistics
3. Types
4. Risk Factors
5. Why Escalating Violence,
Part I
6. Why Escalating Violence,
Part II
7. Media
8. Reasons
9. Characteristics
10. Warning Signs
11. Self-Awareness Activity
12. Learned vs. Instinctive
13. Gang Assessment Tools
14. Anger/Aggression Activity
15. Summary
Chapter 2: Strategies/Prevention for Individuals
1. Behavior Response
2. How to Respond
3. Avoiding Power Struggles
4. Tips
5. Controlling Anxiety
6. Control & Direct
Activity
Chapter 3: Strategies/Prevention
for Schools
1. Action Steps for Students
2. Action Steps for Teachers
3. Action Steps for Parents
5. Patterns of Aggression
6. Preventing Behavior
7. Making Peace
8. Decision Making Activity
9. Confrontation Communication
10. Changing Behavior
11. Prevention Strategies
12. Conflict Negotiation
13. Crisis Planning Guidelines
14. Possible Interventions
15. Anger: It Won’t Work Here
Chapter 4: Have a Plan
1. Case Study
2. Violence Prevention
Training/Tools
3. Summary
At the end of each course chapter, you
will be expected to complete an examination designed to assess your knowledge.
You may take these exams a total of three times. Your last score will save, not the highest
score. After your third attempt, each
examination will lock and not allow further access. The average from your exam scores will be printed
on your certificate. However, this is
not your final grade since your required writing assignments have not been
reviewed. Exceptionally written or
poorly written required writing assignments, or violation of the academic
integrity policy in the course syllabus, will affect your grade. As this is a
self-paced computerized instruction program, you may review course information
as often as necessary. You will not be able to exit any examinations until you
have answered all questions. If you try to exit the exam before you complete
all questions, your information will be lost. You are expected to complete the
entire exam in one sitting.
Writing
Assignments
All
assignments are reviewed and may impact your final grade. Exceptionally or
poorly written assignments, or violation of the Academic Integrity Policy (see
course syllabus for policy), will affect your grade. Fifty percent of your
grade is determined by your writing assignments, and your overall exam score
determines the other fifty percent. Refer
to the Essay Grading Guidelines which
were sent as an attachment with your original course link. You should also refer to the Course Syllabus
Addendum which was sent as an attachment with your original course link, to
determine if you have any writing assignments in addition to the Critical
Thinking Questions (CTQ) and Journal Article Summations (JAS). If you do, the Essay Grading Guidelines will also apply.
Your
writing assignments must meet the minimum word count and are not to include the
question or your final citations as part of your word count. In other words, the question and citations
are not to be used as a means to meet the minimum word
count.
Critical Thinking
Questions
There are four CTQs that you are required to complete.
You will need to write a minimum of 500
words (maximum 1,000) per essay. You
should explain how the information that you gained from the course will
be applied and clearly convey a strong understanding of the course content as
it relates to each CTQ. To
view the questions, click on REQUIRED ESSAY and choose the CTQ that you are
ready to complete; this will bring up a screen where you may enter your essay. Prior to course
submission, you may go back at any point to edit your essay, but you must be
certain to click SAVE once you are done with your edits.
You must click
SAVE before you write another essay or move on to another part of the course.
Journal Article
Summations
You are required to write, in your own words, a
summary on a total of three peer-reviewed or scholarly journal articles (one article
per JAS), written by an author with a Ph.D., Ed.D. or similar, on the topic
outlined within each JAS section in the “Required Essays” portion of the
course (blogs, abstracts, news articles or similar are not acceptable).
Your article choice must relate specifically to the discussion topic listed in
each individual JAS. You will choose a total of three relevant articles
(one article per JAS) and write a thorough
summary of the information presented in each article (you must write a minimum
of 200 words with a 400 word maximum per
JAS). Be sure to provide the URL or the journal name, volume, date, and any
other critical information to allow the facilitator to access and review each
article.
To write your summary, click on REQUIRED ESSAYS and
choose the JAS that you would like to complete. A writing
program will automatically launch where you can write your summary. When you
are ready to stop, click SAVE. Prior to course submission you may go back at
any point to edit your summaries but you must be certain to click SAVE once you
are done with your edits. For more information on the features of this
assignment, please consult the HELP menu.
You
must click SAVE before you write another summary or move on to another part of
the course.
Instructor
Description
Karen Lea holds a Ph.D. in education, has TEFL certification, and is Project Management Professional certified. Dr. Lea has fifteen years’ experience teaching at the K–12 level and another seventeen years’ experience teaching education and leadership courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Currently she is an Assessment Developer at Western Governor's University. Dr. Lea has been professionally published over fifteen times and has served on more than a dozen panels and boards, including serving on the NCATE (CAEP) Board of Examiners.
Contacting the Instructor
You
may contact the instructor by emailing Dr. Lea at karen_lea@virtualeduc.comor by
calling him at 509-891-7219, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST.
Phone messages will be answered within 24 hours. Phone conferences will be limited to ten minutes per student, per
day, given that this is a self-paced instructional program. Please do not
contact the instructor about technical problems, course glitches, or other
issues that involve the operation of the course.
If you have questions or problems related
to the operation of this course, please try everything twice. If the problem persists please check our support pages for FAQs and known
issues at www.virtualeduc.com and also the Help section of your course.
If you need personal assistance then email
support@virtualeduc.com or call
(509) 891-7219. When contacting
technical support, please know your course version number (it is located at the
bottom left side of the Welcome Screen) and your operating system,
and be seated in front of the computer at the time of your call.
Minimum Computer
Requirements
Please
refer to VESi’s website: www.virtualeduc.com
or contact VESi if you have further questions about the compatibility of your operating
system.
Refer to the addendum regarding Grading Criteria, Course Completion
Information, Items to be Submitted and how to submit your completed
information. The addendum will also note any additional course assignments that
you may be required to complete that are not listed in this syllabus.
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(Suggested
Readings)
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(2010). Teen gangstas. Psychology Today.
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Rich, S. L., Wilson, J. K., &
Robertson, A. A. (2019). The impact of abuse trauma on alcohol and drug use: A
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Steffgen, G., Recchia, S., & Viechtbauer, W. (2013).
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Course
content is updated every three years. Due to this update timeline, some URL
links may no longer be active or may have changed. Please type the title of the
organization into the command line of any Internet browser search window and
you will be able to find whether the URL link is still active or any new link
to the corresponding organization's web home page.
8/11/20 JN