Phase 2: Findings
Finding #1: Students were appreciating each other more than they were getting into conflicts with each other
Each week I totaled the amount of times I saw my students appreciating each other and getting into conflicts with each other. Looking over this data, I began to notice a trend. Every week my students were appreciating each other more frequently than they were getting into conflicts. Week 1, 15 appreciation moments occurred while only 8 conflicts occurred. Week 2, 13 appreciation moments occurred while only 8 conflicts occurred. Week 3, 10 appreciation moments occurred while only 6 conflicts occurred. This information can be seen in the graphs below.
Each week I totaled the amount of times I saw my students appreciating each other and getting into conflicts with each other. Looking over this data, I began to notice a trend. Every week my students were appreciating each other more frequently than they were getting into conflicts. Week 1, 15 appreciation moments occurred while only 8 conflicts occurred. Week 2, 13 appreciation moments occurred while only 8 conflicts occurred. Week 3, 10 appreciation moments occurred while only 6 conflicts occurred. This information can be seen in the graphs below.
Finding #2: The introduction of the Appreciation I-Message appeared to contribute to a decline in social conflicts and strengthening of the class community
Week 1, I introduced the topic of appreciation to my students and taught them a strategy to use for appreciating others called an Appreciation I-Message. That week, I began to notice a change in my students behaviors. More students started to recognize and appreciate the positive contributions their friends were doing for them like helping them tie their shoes, playing with them, being their friend. My students would acknowledge these students with an Appreciation I-Message. Each time I witnessed an Appreciation I-Message said, I noticed the student receiving it would be smiling and felt good about themselves. Sometimes the students receiving the Appreciation I-Message would even give a hug to the person who said it to them. I could see that the students who were angry with each other at the end of phase 2 were now getting along and saying Appreciation I-Messages to each other. I noticed most students seemed to be getting along well and playing with new friends. The amount of conflicts occurring between my students was much less this week. This same trend continued in week 2 and week 3 of phase 2. Reflecting back on phase 1, social conflicts were happening way less frequently in phase 2 then in phase 1. In phase 1, approximately 20.75 conflicts were occurring per week. In phase 2, approximately 7 conflicts were occurring per week. This was a drastic difference in the amount of conflicts occurring per week from phase 1 to phase 2. The main variable that made phase 2 different from phase 1 is that I added the focus of appreciating others to phase 2. This brought me to the conclusion that adding the focus of appreciation to action research lessons, encouraged my students look more closely at the good deeds their friends were doing for them instead of the bad deeds their friends were doing for them. As a result this strengthened the class community.
Week 1, I introduced the topic of appreciation to my students and taught them a strategy to use for appreciating others called an Appreciation I-Message. That week, I began to notice a change in my students behaviors. More students started to recognize and appreciate the positive contributions their friends were doing for them like helping them tie their shoes, playing with them, being their friend. My students would acknowledge these students with an Appreciation I-Message. Each time I witnessed an Appreciation I-Message said, I noticed the student receiving it would be smiling and felt good about themselves. Sometimes the students receiving the Appreciation I-Message would even give a hug to the person who said it to them. I could see that the students who were angry with each other at the end of phase 2 were now getting along and saying Appreciation I-Messages to each other. I noticed most students seemed to be getting along well and playing with new friends. The amount of conflicts occurring between my students was much less this week. This same trend continued in week 2 and week 3 of phase 2. Reflecting back on phase 1, social conflicts were happening way less frequently in phase 2 then in phase 1. In phase 1, approximately 20.75 conflicts were occurring per week. In phase 2, approximately 7 conflicts were occurring per week. This was a drastic difference in the amount of conflicts occurring per week from phase 1 to phase 2. The main variable that made phase 2 different from phase 1 is that I added the focus of appreciating others to phase 2. This brought me to the conclusion that adding the focus of appreciation to action research lessons, encouraged my students look more closely at the good deeds their friends were doing for them instead of the bad deeds their friends were doing for them. As a result this strengthened the class community.
Finding #3: Students can independently solve their social conflicts using the Problem Solving I-Message but many feel the need to tell the teacher about their conflict first
Each week of phase 1 I had a great deal of students coming up to me to report conflicts with friends and each time I would tell these students, "How are you going to solve that?" and students would say, "An I-Message" then go about solving it with an I-Message. There were also a number of students who I witnessed solving their conflicts directly with an I-Message. The same thing occurred in Phase 2. The first week I had 4 students report conflicts to me then solve it with a Problem Solving I-Message and had 3 students who solved social conflicts directly with a Problem Solving I-Message. The second week I had 2 students report conflicts to me then solve it with a Problem Solving I-Message and 4 students who solved their conflicts directly with a Problem Solving I-Message. Finally, the third week of phase 2, I decided to do an explicit lesson on using the Problem Solving I-Message immediately after a conflict arrises then telling the teacher about it after it is solved. That week 4 conflicts were solved directly with Problem Solving I-Messages and 2 conflicts were brought to my attention and then solved with a Problem Solving I-Message. This brought me to the conclusion that students this age can independently solve their social conflicts using the Problem Solving I-Message but feel the need to tell a teacher or authority figure about their conflict first.
Possible Plans for Phase 3
After I concluded my phase 2 and gathered my findings for phase 2, I really wanted to move on to Phase 3 however, I couldn't because my time student teaching in this classroom had ended. However, if I were to conduct a Phase 3 with this class, I would have liked to implement some of the other instructional approaches to reinforce and practice conflict resolution strategies that I mentioned in my literature review section. I would try introducing a "Conflict Resolution Circle" area in the classroom for students to go to and work out their social conflicts with Problem Solving I-Messages. In the "Conflict Resolution Circle" area I would place a small hula hoop ring for students to grasp while working out their problem. This circular ring would represent the "Conflict Resolution Circle". I would make it mandatory that students go there to solve their problems before reporting anything to me. I feel that this method might be a way to get students to immediately solve their social conflicts without first reporting them to me. I think I would also try assigning different students to the role of "mediator" to friends experiencing social conflicts. Students assigned the role "mediator" would be responsible for helping students in conflict solve their conflict. They would have to make sure students in conflict were calm, were committed to solving the problem, solving it using a Problem Solving I-Message and ensuring at the end all people in conflict are committed to the resolution and doing their part in the resolution. I would be interested to see if incorporating these methods to reinforce and practice the Problem Solving I-Message would reduce the amount of students reporting their problems to me before attempting to solve it independently.
Each week of phase 1 I had a great deal of students coming up to me to report conflicts with friends and each time I would tell these students, "How are you going to solve that?" and students would say, "An I-Message" then go about solving it with an I-Message. There were also a number of students who I witnessed solving their conflicts directly with an I-Message. The same thing occurred in Phase 2. The first week I had 4 students report conflicts to me then solve it with a Problem Solving I-Message and had 3 students who solved social conflicts directly with a Problem Solving I-Message. The second week I had 2 students report conflicts to me then solve it with a Problem Solving I-Message and 4 students who solved their conflicts directly with a Problem Solving I-Message. Finally, the third week of phase 2, I decided to do an explicit lesson on using the Problem Solving I-Message immediately after a conflict arrises then telling the teacher about it after it is solved. That week 4 conflicts were solved directly with Problem Solving I-Messages and 2 conflicts were brought to my attention and then solved with a Problem Solving I-Message. This brought me to the conclusion that students this age can independently solve their social conflicts using the Problem Solving I-Message but feel the need to tell a teacher or authority figure about their conflict first.
Possible Plans for Phase 3
After I concluded my phase 2 and gathered my findings for phase 2, I really wanted to move on to Phase 3 however, I couldn't because my time student teaching in this classroom had ended. However, if I were to conduct a Phase 3 with this class, I would have liked to implement some of the other instructional approaches to reinforce and practice conflict resolution strategies that I mentioned in my literature review section. I would try introducing a "Conflict Resolution Circle" area in the classroom for students to go to and work out their social conflicts with Problem Solving I-Messages. In the "Conflict Resolution Circle" area I would place a small hula hoop ring for students to grasp while working out their problem. This circular ring would represent the "Conflict Resolution Circle". I would make it mandatory that students go there to solve their problems before reporting anything to me. I feel that this method might be a way to get students to immediately solve their social conflicts without first reporting them to me. I think I would also try assigning different students to the role of "mediator" to friends experiencing social conflicts. Students assigned the role "mediator" would be responsible for helping students in conflict solve their conflict. They would have to make sure students in conflict were calm, were committed to solving the problem, solving it using a Problem Solving I-Message and ensuring at the end all people in conflict are committed to the resolution and doing their part in the resolution. I would be interested to see if incorporating these methods to reinforce and practice the Problem Solving I-Message would reduce the amount of students reporting their problems to me before attempting to solve it independently.