ETHIKA - Ethics and Values Education in Schools and Kindergartens

Educational Resources Listening and Communication Skills Topic: Conflict Resolution Age Group: 11-14 11 years old

Ethics and Values Education - Educational Materials and Tools

Authors Ivana Kragić Acknowledgement We would like to thank the all teachers and educators that participated at the Ethics and Vales Education training events in Ljubljana (23-27 March 2015) and Zadar (11-16 April 2016) and all other teachers and educators that are involved in the Ethika project for providing valuable feedback on the contents of these materials and tools. Pictures © 2015 iStockpicture Copyright Materials can be used according to the: Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike license Disclaimer This project has been funded with the support of the European Union and the Slovenian National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the European Union and the Slovenian National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 2

Ethics and Values Education - Educational Materials and Tools

Table of contents Listening and Communication Skills .................................................................................... 5 Description of workshop ................................................................................................... 5 Did you know?.................................................................................................................. 6 Ideas for additional activities ............................................................................................ 6

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Ethics and Values Education - Educational Materials Ma and Tools

Ethical action

Justice

Respect

ResponsiResponsi bility

Self esteem

3-5 y.o.

Who's faster?

Overcoming obstacles

Tomato’s feelings

The speeches round

Pumpkin Signs

Puppet’s problems

Sign Choosing

Cooperative games

Sad Broccoli

Elf’s Box

Story about Peter

Daddy is a superhero!

We all like our logo

Civic action

Unfair rain

Why do we need to respect others?

A Girl and a Dog

Try to find positive

Making Peace

Code of ethics for volunteers

What is justice?

Step forward

Superheroes

Just be you!

Listening and

Charity club for a better world

The Mathematics exam

The Debate and the Jury

A poem for a better world

Picture workshop

11-14 y.o.

9-11 y.o.

7-9 y.o.

Conflict resolution

5-7 y.o.

The ETHIKA educational materials:

Communication Skills

Ethika advocates for moral education in pre-primary, pre primary, primary and secondary schools: www.ethics www.ethics-education.eu We hope this material will bring a new dimension to your work and inspire you to use it for fostering tolerance, understanding and respect for diversity among young people. The following educational material was designed within the context of the project ETHIKA Ethics and Values Education in Schools and Kindergartens. K The topics chosen together with teachers and parents coming from Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria through focus groups and questionnaires are: Conflict resolution , Ethical action, Justice, Respect, Responsibility, Self esteem. es Each material is accompanied by key learning points as well as several interesting facts or pieces of information which are intended to be used to provoke further discussion. The most appropriate age group and related emotional intelligence are indicated. indic Wherever possible we have included a short interactive activity that can be carried out with students or a series of suggested questions to ask, in order to introduce the topic of each material. Should you wish to explore certain topics or themes further, each material includes a link to other related one. A general list of additional additional educational resources related to the topics is also provided. The material and accompanying text are designed as standalone educational aids. In this respect, the manual is intended to provide an overall framework from which you can pick and choose the he issues most relevant to your activities. The manual can be used within any country or context as it deals with issues, which are cross-border cross border and universal.

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Ethics and Values Education - Educational Materials and Tools

Listening and Communication Skills Topic: Age range: Time: Materials and tools:

Conflict Resolution 11-14 years old 60 minutes printed pictures, blank papers and pans

Educational methods: 2: Philosophy for and with children; 3: Socratic dialogue; 5: Holistic ethical learning Ethical values, arguments and themes: conflict resolution, understanding, listening and communication skills, dialogue, critical thinking, creative thinking, mediation Key learning points: Encourage children to: • develop listening and communication skills that are crucial for any conflict resolution • realize and learn methods on how to resolve a conflict. The aim is to encourage children to think critically and creatively. Also, motivate the children to explore the concept of conflict on ethical and moral level.

Description of workshop Start the workshop by asking the students if they ever heard of Mediation. If yes, ask them to explain and describe the method. If their answer is no, present them a following definition: „Mediation is the attempt to help parties in a disagreement to: • hear one another, • to minimise the harm that can come from disagreement (e.g. hostility or ‘demonising’ of the other parties) • to maximize any area of agreement, and to find a way of preventing the areas of disagreement from interfering with the process of seeking a compromise or mutually

agreed outcome.“ (Definition was taken from Wikipedia). Make sure that everyone understand the definition by asking them to paraphrase the given definition. Next step is to ask the students to think in which situations and professions mediation could be used (court, school, work etc.). Ask the students what skills are most needed in mediation and why. After their answers, announce the game that will focus on developing communication and listening skills and it will require some role-playing. They will try one part of mediation process and that is to lead parties to HEAR ONE ANOTHER. Divide students in the group of four. Ask them to come up with a conflict situation. The situation can be from real life or hypothetical. Two students will be playing roles of two people that are in conflict. Make sure that each student embraces the role that is playing by understanding the emotional and character aspect of a person in certain conflict. For example: a mother that doesn’t want her teenage daughter to dye her hair in red colour and a teenage daughter that is frustrated by her mother’s banning because red hair is 5

Ethics and Values Education - Educational Materials and Tools

modern and she truly likes it. Third student will have a role of mediator and his task is to bring the parties together in the way that they listen and understand what the other one is saying. The mediator needs to come up with basic communication rules that will help the parties to express their feeling and point of view to each other regarding the conflict situation. For example: when one person is talking the other one must be quiet and listen; one person needs to paraphrase what the other one said; they both need to explain why they agree or disagree with certain statement etc. Mediator must be biased, comprehensive, peacefully leading the process and he needs to recognize and respond to signs of anger or frustration. The fourth person needs to monitor the entire process, make notes and arguments on what was good and what wasn’t during the season. Let the students do this exercise for 20 minutes. Then ask the students that were taking the notes to collaborate to the class what was a conflict situation; what were mediators methods for communication, did the parties fallow his instructions, could they understand each other and did the atmosphere change towards the end. Right each communication method on the board and start a discussion with entire class by the help of following questions: • Is this a good method? • would you add another method to this list? Why? • would you dismiss some of these methods? Why? • what is the most important thing in communication? • how can you use these methods in real conflict situation? • have you ever used some of this methods? • is it important to read the nonverbal sings in communication? How do we do that? At the end of the workshops, ask the participants if they would change anything during their mediation session and why.

Did you know? • •

“The word mediator goes back to the Latin word medius, which means middle. A mediator is supposed to remain in the neutral middle rather than taking one side over another, in order to help both sides resolve a dispute.” (www.vocabulary.com). “Mediators are trained in working with difficult situations. The mediator acts as a neutral facilitator and guides the parties through the process. The mediator helps the parties think "outside of the box" for possible solutions to the dispute, broadening the range of possible solutions.” (Wikipedia).

Ideas for additional activities You can start a workshop with 15-minute game that develops lessening and communication skills. Students will be working in pairs of two. Ask each pair to merge their chairs in a manner that they are touching their back. These way students can’t see what their partner is doing because they are turned with their back from one another. Give one student a piece of paper which has some drawing on it (make drawings simple but challenging like Christmas tree, different geometric shapes, road signs, simple abstract drawings etc.). You can have more drawings on one paper. The other student will get blank paper and a pen. The task is that the student with a drawing needs to explain the drawing as accurately as he can: the position of the object, the right shape and size of the object, composition of the drawing etc. Meaning the student with the drawing needs to lead his partner only with words and clear instructions to draw the same drawing on his blank paper. The student that will be drawing can’t talk or ask questions he just needs to listen and follow his partner instructions. Give students five minutes for one drawing. After that tell them to switch roles so the student that was drawing will be giving the instructions now. 6

Ethics and Values Education - Educational Materials and Tools

Give a new drawing to the student that will be giving the instructions and blank paper and a pen to the student that will follow the instructions. After another five minutes stop the game and tell the students to compare their drawing to original ones. Ask them is the drawing similar to original? What was harder for them: to give clear instruction or to listen to instruction? Would they done it differently now? Could they understand their partner? Were they really listening? Explain to the students that this game is for developing communication and listening skills and ask them for what do we need does skills in everyday life. (This method is often used in a classroom and training activities. The author of this workshop did not create this activity).

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