Online Course for Teachers

Course Title

Managing School Violence and Bullying: a Whole School Approach for Teachers

Expected time involvement of students

Approximately 30 hours

Course description and learning objectives

The VISTOP Teachers Pathway is an online course that was designed for teachers by Helen Cowie, Ozhan Oztug and Mike O’Driscoll.

The pathway includes

• needs analysis;
• information on current research and practice about violence reduction and prevention;
• activities on conflict resolution, mediation, peer support, and strategies for improving the school and classroom climate;
• video-clips illustrating issues and interventions; and
• links to useful websites

Overview of modules

• Module 1: Understanding the definitions and context of school violence
• Module 2: The Whole-School Community Approach
• Module 3: Conducting a needs analysis: preparing for change
• Module 4: Conducting a needs analysis: consultation and evaluation
• Module 5: Children Helping Children
• Module 6: Creating an emotionally literate school
• Module 7: School bullying and violence: The role of the Internet

Developed by

Professor Helen Cowie

Helen Cowie gained her PhD from London University and is currently currently Director of the UK Observatory (www.ukobservatory.com) which promotes research into the phenomenon of school bullying. She has published widely in the field. Her latest books, co-authored with Dr Dawn Jennifer, are: Managing Violence in Schools: a Whole-School Approach to Best Practice, published by Sage, and New Perspectives on Bullying, published by the Open University. From 2008-2009 she was Visiting Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Hiroshima University, Japan, where she engaged in research into peer support against bullying and the development of strategies to counteract cyberbullying. She also co-ordinated the EU-funded project Violence in Schools Training Action (VISTA) www.vista-europe.org whose materials formed the basis for the VISTOP Project.

E-mail: H.cowie@surrey.ac.uk

Dr Ozhan Oztug

After working as a research associate in the UK Observatory he is now employed as a lecturer and researcher in the Institute of Educational Sciences of the Near East University in Northern Cyprus. His interests include development and evaluation of strategies for the prevention of violence in schools, developing efficient e-learning tools, and peer-support training.

E-mail: ooztug@neu.edu.tr

Mike O’Driscoll

Research Officer in the Division of Health and Social Care, University of Surrey. Mike’s principal research interests are in widening participation in health professional education, the experiences of non-traditional nursing students, the use of I.T. both in social research and teaching and learning (particularly with regard to e-learning and e-portfolios).

E-mail: m.o’driscoll@surrey.ac.uk

Registration information

Participation at this online course is free of charge.

Access

The course’s URL: www.vistop.org/moodle/course/view.php