Abstract

Teachers are continually assisting students to manage relationships and make healthy choices when experiencing conflict in the playground. An educative process employing reflection strategies to assist with conflict resolution was investigated to try to cultivate a healthy classroom community. ‘Friends In Conflict Sort It Together’ was a program developed by the researcher as part of a Master’s action research project in 2014 in a Brisbane suburban Christian primary school. This program explored four key questions students need to explore and reflect on to improve outcomes in conflict. A rubric was created as a pre-test and post-test quantitative measurement tool. This assessment tool provided an indication of initial and final student understanding of the four key questions explored during the program relating to observation and perspective, empathy, insight, and decision-making skills in conflict. This rubric was adapted from the ‘5Rs Reflective Writing Scale’ by Bain et al. that was originally created to measure and encourage quality reflections during practicums for pre-service teachers. A ‘Teacher Resource Booklet’ and ‘Student Journal’ were designed to support active engagement and record each student’s reflective journey throughout the research program. An interactive program of one hour a week over five weeks was implemented by the researcher for a Year Two and Year Five class. This program provided practical opportunities for students to develop their understanding of the four key questions in a conflict resolution process through role play, group activities, scenario brainstorming, group and individual reflection. The results of the program suggest that there can be benefits in engaging transformative educational approaches to explore conflict scenarios to encourage a perceptive, reflective, responsive and proactive healthy classroom community.