Understanding
Aggression:
Coping with Aggressive Behavior in the
Classroom
Instructor Name: Dr. Michael Sedler
Phone: 509-891-7219
Office Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
PST Monday - Friday
Email: michaels@virtualeduc.com
Address: Virtual Education Software
16201 E Indiana Ave,
Suite 1450
Spokane,
WA 99216
Technical Support: support@virtualeduc.com
This
course is about violence in
The
course will consider the many forms of aggression, both criminal and otherwise;
its costs and motivation; its perpetrators and targets; its likely and unlikely
locations; its impact on our schools, the children; and, most especially, its
several causes and promising solutions.
Topics
of interest will include violence and the challenge of raising and working with
children; aggression in our classrooms; American youth gangs and their
influence; past and future sports violence; “hot spot” locations of frequent
violence; and the aggression-promoting role of alcohol, temperature, driving,
television and other features of modern life. The course also will answer
questions such as: Is aggression always
bad? How do aggressive thoughts lead to aggressive actions? Is aggression, at
least for some people, an addiction? Does the victim contribute to being
attacked? Is dating a dangerous proposition? How are the acts of aggression
dealt with in other countries, and are there any lessons for
The
goal of this course is to help educators and adults in general better
understand how aggression affects our lives and the lives of children.
Hopefully such greater understanding and more skilled efforts at prevention
will substantially reduce the aggression and violence that has become all too
common in
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: Understanding Aggression: Coping with
Aggressive Behavior in the Classroom
Instructor: Dr. Michael Sedler
Publisher: Virtual
Education Software, inc. 2002, Revised 2008, Revised 2010, Revised 2013
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.
This
course is designed to be an informational course with application to work or
work-related settings. The intervention
strategies are designed to be used with students having high aggression and
violent tendencies, ranging in age from approximately three to eighteen years
of age.
1)
To review the history of
aggression and how society came to be such an aggressive place
2)
To identify the causes of
aggressive behavior, both internal and external
3)
To explain how aggression is
expressed in various social settings such as schoolyards, classrooms, sports,
homes, etc.
4)
To identify perpetrators and
victims of aggression and violence
5)
To identify locations of high
aggression and violence
6)
To provide solutions for reducing
aggression and violence in classroom and other school settings
7)
To provide information on how
educators can help students/children reduce feelings of aggression and violent
tendencies
The
course, Understanding Aggression, has
been divided into four chapters and five to ten exercises within each chapter.
The first chapter reviews the history of aggression in
The
second chapter deals with how we have learned to be aggressive. It discusses
how aggressive thoughts many times become aggressive actions. The course
reviews the “us versus them” side of aggression and violence. Chapter 2 also
deals with how alcohol, temperature and driving can increase aggression and
violence. The chapter reviews the role of television and how TV may be a tutor
for violent behavior. Is high aggression often found in people who tend to have
low empathy? This chapter will discuss this issue. The chapter will also cover
how words and teasing can be expressions and forms of aggression.
The
third chapter centers on aggression and violence as crimes. It explores arson,
assault and crimes of fear. The chapter also will discuss vigilante justice
and/or injustice. Along with criminal aggression the chapter takes a look at
guns and gangs in
Chapter
4 speaks to working with and raising children to resist violence. It gives
suggestions to educators and parents on how to deal with and counteract
aggressive or violent behavior. This chapter deals with dating, and how it can
be impacted by aggressive behavior and date violence. It speaks to how
television affects the aggressive behavior of our children. The chapter reviews
child tantrums, and what to do about them. Chapter 4 is summarized with several
exercises on win-win scenarios for remediation and effective problem solving
techniques.
The chapters and exercises are
sequential and, although it is not required, they should be completed in the
order in which they are presented in the program. After completing these four chapters you
should have a framework for understanding and working with aggressive behavior.
This also may help you understand why students with high aggression are a
challenge in a regular education setting.
After you
complete each chapter of the course, an examination will be used to evaluate
your knowledge and ability to apply what you’ve learned. An explanation of the
examinations will be given later in this syllabus.
As a student you will be expected to:
1)
Complete all information chapters
covering aggression, showing a competent understanding of the material
presented.
2)
Complete all examinations,
showing a competent understanding of the material presented.
3)
Complete a review of any chapter
on which your examination score was below 70%.
4)
Retake
any examination, after completing an information review, to increase that
examination score to a minimum of 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.
5)
Complete a course evaluation form
at the end of the course.
Chapter
1: Introduction and Characteristics
·
Introduction
·
How Did We Get Here?
·
The Costs of Aggression
·
Is Aggression Always Bad?
·
Chapter
2: Behaviors and Techniques
·
Learning to Be Aggressive
·
Us Versus Them
·
Aggressive Thoughts and
Aggressive Actions
·
Low Empathy, High Aggression
·
Television as a Tutor: Aggression 101
·
Alcohol and Aggression: Courage in a Bottle
·
Does the Victim Help Cause
Violence?
·
Words That Hurt
·
Hot Days, Hot Tempers
·
Auto Aggression
·
Jump! Jump! The Suicide-baiting
Crowd
Chapter
3: Acts and Forms of Violence
·
The Journey to Crime
·
Other Acts of Aggression
·
Vigilante Injustice
·
Fear of Crime
·
The Home and Family
·
Sports Violence: Past, Present and Future
·
Play Fighting and Real Fighting –
Is there a Connection?
·
The Ride to and Through
School: Safe or Scary?
·
Teaching Prosocial Behavior to
Antisocial Youth
·
A Short Course on Gangs
Chapter
4: Preventing Violence
·
Raising Children to Resist
Violence
·
Tantrums
·
Nonaggressive Children From
Aggressive Environments
·
Dating as a Dangerous Game
·
Let’s Both Calm Down, Then We’ll
Talk
·
Take my Wife, Please
·
Why Is Aggression so Hard to
Change?
·
Downsizing Deviance
·
Complex Problems Demand Complex
Solutions
·
A Look to the Future
At the end of
each 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. Your final grade for the course
will be determined by calculating an average score of all exams. This score will be printed on your final
certificate. 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.
Dr. Michael
Sedler has
presented seminars and classes throughout the Pacific Northwest and
Canada. Dr. Sedler has worked as an
administrator, behavior specialist, teacher and social worker within the public
school setting. Dr. Sedler is an adjunct
professor for two universities in the state of
You may contact
the instructor by emailing michaels@virtualeduc.com
or by calling (509) 891-7219 Monday through Thursday. When calling during
office hours 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.
Bibliography (Suggested
Readings)
Anthony, Michelle.
(2010). Little girls can be mean.
New York, NY: Macmillan. Investigating social struggles in elementary
age girls (grades 2-6). www.macmillan.com 888-330-8477.
Carr, Tom. (2003). When all else fails. Chapin, SC: Youthlight, Inc. Helping professionals with disruptive
students (grades K-12). www.youthlight.com 800-365-9774.
Carr, Tom. (2005). 141 creative strategies for reaching adolescents. Chapin, SC: Youthlight, Inc. Intervention approaches for teens (grades
5-12). www.youthlight.com 800-365-9774.
Espelage, Dorothy. (2010). Bullying
in North American schools. Florence,
KY: Routledge. Research-based book on
violence in schools (grades k-12). www.routledge.com 800-634-7064.
Fitzell, Susan Gringas. (2007). Transforming anger to personal power. Champaign, IL: Research Press. Teaching anger management (grades 6-12). www.researchpress.com 800-519-2707.
Glasser, William. (1999). Choice Theory. New York, NY:
HarperCollins Publishers. Evaluating
one’s life and outlook. (Adults) www.harpercollins.com 800-242-7737.
Glick, Barry, & Gibbs, John. (2010). Aggression replacement training: A
comprehensive intervention for aggressive youth (3rd ed.). Champaign, IL: Research Press. Social skills manual for working with
aggressive youth (grades 7-12). www.researchpress.com (800) 519-2707.
Greene, Ross. (2005). The
explosive child. Boys Town, NE: Boys Town Press. Ideas for understanding and working with
inflexible children and explosive situations (K-8). www.boystownpress.org 800-282-6657.
Hudley, Cynthia. (2008). You did that on purpose. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Strategies and interventions to reduce
aggression. (grades 4-12). www.guilford.com 800-365-7006.
McFadden, Anna, & Cooper, Kathy. (2004). Leave no angry child behind. Courage to Change. Chapin, SC: Youthlight.
160 proactive tips and strategies to reducing anger in students (grades
K-12). www.couragetochange.com 800-440-4003.
Nelsen, Jane, et al. (2006). Positive
Discipline Series. Empowering People Inc. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Create cooperation and self-discipline in students (grades K-12, series). www.empoweringpeople.com 800-456-7770.
Payne, Ruby. (2005).
A framework for understanding
poverty. Highlands, TX: Aha! Process.
Understanding poverty and its impact on people (grades K-12). www.ahaprocess.com 800-424-9484.
Simmons, Rachel. (2011). Odd girl out: The hidden culture of aggression in girls. New York,
NY: Harcourt Books. Understanding the culture of aggression in
girls (grades 7-12). www.harcourtbooks.com 800-543-1918.
Vernon, Ann. (2006). Thinking, feeling, behaving.
Champaign, IL: Research Press.
Helping children address thoughts and consequences (grades K-12,
series). www.researchpress.com 800-519-2707.
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.
Updated 8/27/14 JN