Conflict resolution

Language:             English

Material type:   Instructional material

Key words:           Conflict resolution

Time required for lesson: 60 minutes 

Targeted skills: Communication skill, conflict resolution skill



Abstract

Context: This lesson focuses on explaining and teaching the ways of resolving conflicts .

Relevance: My lesson is based on what Aisha , one student in Togo described about their conflicts with the community members on various issues. From her description it's clear that, the community members, specially elderly members have some reservations on girl's education and students like Aisha could not find a way to resolve this conflict. This lesson will help prepare learners like Aisha to understand how to deal with conflicts and try to resolve them. 

Learner Audience

Teachers, parents, community members

Educational Use

Curriculum/Instruction

Language

English

Material Type

Instructional Material

Key words

Conflict resolution, ways to deal conflict 

Time required for the lesson

60 minutes

Targeted Skill

  • Conflict resolution
  • Dialogue

Learning Objectives

At the end of the lesson students will be able to- 

  •  understand how it is to be in a conflicting situation
  •  practice the skills of dialogue 
  •  build consensus


Prior Knowledge

 Learners need to know how to read and write.



Required Resources

Internet, projector, computer, YouTube video clip link

Lesson author and licence

Farjahan Shawon

CreativeCommons CC BY 4.0 license

Part 2: Lesson

Instructional Strategies and Activities


Warm up (5 min)

Teacher will start the lesson by playing a quick introductory game. She will demonstrate by introducing herself with an adjective, like - 'hi, I am fabulous Fiona.' And then ask students to introduce themselves the same way. 

This will help breaking the initial ice and they will feel free. 


Introduction (10 mins)

Teacher will introduce the topic 'conflict' and 'conflict resolution' by a short video clip (52 sec) from the  the movie despicable me (Coffin and Renaud, 2010). In this clip, there's a conflict between Gru and Agnes because of the Toy, but with Agnes' cute protest, Gru had no choice but to think of way of giving her toy back. which in that case, solves the so-called "conflict".

After watching the video, teacher will ask question on what was the issue here, how that was solved etc. The questions will guide students to get the idea of 'what conflict is' and 'how simply it can be solved.' From there, teacher will ask students, about similar kinds of conflicts that they face in their daily lives or any other types of conflicts. The discussion will lead towards issues that they face in their community. Once they share/talk/discuss about some of the conflicts that they have in their community, teacher will also share her personal experience of conflicts. This could be simple example of argumentative conflicts in between family members. 


Presentation/Modeling (10 mins)

Teacher will show another short video clip from the the TV series 'The Office' ( Daniels, 2005-13), where the office manager resolves a conflict by discussing and making dialogues. 

After watching the video, teacher will ask what they noticed here that seemed different than any conflicting situations in their and others  lives. Through asking this question and guiding the discussion, teacher will  explain how 'asking question and  listening to the answer' makes a difference which is known as ' dialogue'. It's like debate but not debate or not like a conversation either. The main point here is to to come to an agreement between two or more people through question and answer.  True dialogue is collaborative. In dialogue participants work toward shared understanding and strength and value in each other’s positions. And in debate participants involves in a discussion with the goal of persuading or advocating for their own view, attempting to prove the other side wrong. 


Guided Practice (10 mins)

After the discussion, students will play a game called ' anything goes' based on a game described in The Big Book of Conflict Resolution Game by Mary Scannel ( 2010), which will help them understand how it feels to be in a conflicting situation and how it's possible to solve conflicts through dialogues.

Procedure of the game: It's a game that leads participants to engage in a mini-conflict with another participant. This conflicts are nonthreatening.

Step 1 -  Teacher will ask participants to find a partner and instruct each pair stand face to face, right fist out (as in Rock, Paper, Scissors). They will say together, “Nothing, something, anything!” When the word anything is said, the participants will scream out the name of any item they can think of (dog, coffee mug, shoe). 

Step 2: Next, team members must now debate with one another as to why their item is better than the other person’s item. They will have 2-3 minutes for this debate.

Step 3: Once they are done debating,  teacher would call a brief time-out to discuss the difference between debate and dialogue. And the teams will continue with their conversations. Teacher will encourage team members to engage in dialogues. 

Teacher will explain, how in dialogue, the intention is to really listen to one another’s perspective with a willingness to be influenced by what we hear. Dialogue allows people to develop understanding for one another’s perspectives, thoughts, and feelings as well as to reevaluate their own position in light of the other’s understanding. In dialogue, everyone has a chance to be heard, understood, and to learn from each other.





Assessment (10 min)

Teacher will divide students in 3-4 large group (depending on the class size) and instruct them to come up with an imaginary or from their practical life conflicting scenario. They will present on a poster how they can resolve the conflict and write 2-4 ways of making a dialogue to solve that. Once they are done creating the poster, they will present in front of the whole class. 


Application (10 min)

After the poster presentation, whole class along with teacher will start a discussion and address the following questions (The Big Book of Conflict Resolution, Scallen, M., 2010). This discussion will give a clear picture to the teacher on how well students got the idea of using dialogue for solving a conflict.

1. What was your reaction  to the mini-conflict situation with another classmate?  

2. What is your normal way of reacting to a similar situation in real life? Is it similar to the way you did now ? Why or why not?

3. Describe the process you were able to come to a consensus? 

4. Did you notice some differences  when you switched from debate to dialogue? 

5. What do you do when someone disagrees with you? Is it normal that you always stop to ask questions? 

6. How difficult it is to listen when someone disagrees? And why it is difficult? 

7. Tell us one point that was made easier in this activity?

 8. What are some ways you could use these skills the next time you’re in conflict with another person?

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