This document provides an overview of classroom management strategies for children involved in bully/victim conflicts. It discusses facts about bullying and theoretical frameworks. It then outlines a three-tiered Response to Intervention model for interventions at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Tier I involves whole-school programs. Tier II focuses on at-risk groups, and Tier III addresses the needs of children already demonstrating problems through individualized interventions and discussions with bullies and victims.

1. Classroom management strategies
for children involved in bully/victim
conflicts disorder
Emtinan Alqurashi
Emily Dingfelder
Elif Gokbel
Leneata Kent
GPSY 827 Classroom Discipline/Behavior management
Final Group Project

2. Overview
● Facts about bullying
● Theoretical framework
● Bullying as a behavior management issue
● Response to Intervention (Rtl) model
● Interventions for Tiers I,II, and III
● Progress monitoring interventions

3. Facts about bullying
Been Bullied
• 28% of U.S. students in grades 6–12 experienced bullying.
• 20% of U.S. students in grades 9–12 experienced bullying.
Bullied Others
• Approximately 30% of young people admit to bullying others in surveys.
Seen Bullying
• 70.6% of young people say they have seen bullying in their schools.
• 70.4% of school staff have seen bullying. 62% witnessed bullying two or more
times in the last month and 41% witness bullying once a week or more.
http://www.stopbullying.gov/news/media/facts/#listing

4. Facts about bullying
Types of Bullying
The following percentages of middle schools
students had experienced these various types of
bullying:
name calling (44.2 %); teasing (43.3
%); spreading rumors or lies (36.3%);
pushing or shoving (32.4%); hitting,
slapping, or kicking (29.2%); leaving
out (28.5%); threatening (27.4%);
stealing belongings (27.3%); sexual
comments or gestures (23.7%); e-
mail or blogging (9.9%).

5. Facts about bullying
Where Bullying Occurs
The following percentages of middle schools
students had experienced bullying in these
various places at school:
classroom (29.3%); hallway or
lockers (29.0%); cafeteria (23.4%);
gym or PE class (19.5%); bathroom
(12.2%); playground or recess (6.2%)

6. Theories
● Ecological Systems model, Bronfenbrenner (1979)
● Social learning theory, Bandura (1977)
● Dominance theory, Pellegrini and Long (2003)

7. Ecological systems model
For a child to be likely to engage in bullying or be the victim
of bullying:
● no single cause
● the interaction between individual traits, family
dynamics, interpersonal relationships, school climate,
and community characteristics

8. Social learning theory
● reciprocal interaction between an individual’s
cognitions, his or her behaviors, and the environment
● acquiring bullying behaviors through operant and
vicarious conditioning mechanism
o Youth who support primary perpetrator
o Youth who witness violence
between adults/peers
Aggression as “effective strategy”
to obtain goals

9. Dominance theory
Primary motivation of perpetrators of bullying is to obtain
social status in order to establish a high position among
peers
● Greater access to resources, such as toys for younger,
relationships (social or romantic for adolescents)

10. Definitions of bullying
“form of instrumental
aggression”
Three types of peer
victimization:
- physical bullying
- verbal bullying
- relational bullying

11. Signs of Victimization
The importance of identifying signs of victimization:
➢ Victims don’t inform teachers (only 4% of 8th graders reported
they would tell a teacher about an incident of teasing)
➢ It occurs when there’s lack of adult supervision

12. Characteristics of victims
● levels of depressive symptoms
● exhibit internalizing symptoms
● use externalizing behaviors
● lack of social skills
● be isolated & are rejected by peers
● have a negative family environment
● have negative cognitions about themselves
● see themselves as stupid
● wrongly blame themselves for the attacks
● have lower academic achievement

13. Effects upon victims
● anxiety
● depression
● low self-esteem
● physical & psychosomatic complaints
● posttraumatic stress disorder
● suicidal ideation
● poor relationship with peers
● less likely to feel connected to others at school
● more likely to bring weapon to school https://youtu.be/QBnqWEOU79I

14. Characteristics of perpetrators
● exhibit externalizing behaviors (defiant, aggressive, disruptive,
non-compliant responses)
● internalizing symptoms (withdrawal, depressive, anxious, avoidant
responses)
● display social competence but experience academic
challenges
● have negative attitudes toward others (lack of empathy)
● experience trouble resolving social conflicts
● experience poor parental monitoring & high levels of
family conflict

15. Consequences for perpetrators
- exhibit higher levels of aggressive-impulsive behavior
- less likely to feel a sense of connection to others at their
school
- increase risk of mental health disorders (ADHD, depression,
oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder)
- more likely to engage in criminal behavior, domestic
violence, substance abuse as an adult
- have poor academic achievement, dropout of school and
struggle with career performance in adulthood
- severely punitive with their own children

16. RtI model
three-tiered intervention structure:
- Primary interventions: target whole school, build
proactive factors to prevent behavior problems from
occurring.
- Secondary interventions: designed for students who
are “at risk” for emotional or social behavior problems.
- Tertiary interventions: focus on the need of children
already demonstrating emotional or social behavior
problems.

17. Tier 1 Prevention and Intervention
Student Code of Conduct
● Whole school anti-bullying policy
● Recognizing differences in views
❖ Three prominent definitional criteria of bullying:
intentionality, repetition, and power imbalance
● Standardized definition of bullying
● Peer victimization

18. Tier 1 Prevention and intervention
Classroom Climate
● Research has identified that there is a robust
relationship between childhood bullying and a negative
school climate.
● Trust between students and teachers, respectful
interactions among and between students and rules that
are fair

19. Tier I Intervention Examples
● Bullying Survey
● School-wide bullying curriculum (Olweus or something
similar)
● Increased supervision on playground, in cafeteria, or in
hallways
● Discussion at PTO meetings
● Increased communication between parents and school
staff
● Start bully prevention early (preschool)

20. Tier II Intervention
❖ Focuses more specifically on group populations that
exhibit at-risk behavior, and typically consist of approx.
5-10% of the general population
❖ Identify students who are at risk and provide sufficient
instruction to change negative behavior
❖ Tier II Interventions should include the following:
parental education, problem solving, social integration
activities, counseling and school to home
communication

21. Tier II Intervention
Selecting Students for Intervention
● When identifying students who are “at-risk” for bully or
victim behaviors and are in need for Tier II intervention,
teachers should identify based on discipline, teacher
and parent referrals, as well as direct assessment
procedures
● Set goals that are obtainable and measurable
● Check in

22. Tier II Intervention
Second Step
● Focuses on promoting social skills and altering attitudes
that lead to violence through the development of
empathy, impulse control and anger management
Steps to Respect
● anti-bullying program that targets children in the upper
elementary school years

23. Tier II Intervention
Behavior Education Programs (BEPs)
● Check in/ Check out system
● BEP forms
Social Skills Groups
● Focus on identifying critical skills that students fail to
exhibit naturally
● Develop social skills that instruct, demonstrate, and
allow children to practice missing skill.

24. Tier II Intervention Examples
● Immediate consequences for aggressive
behavior
● Immediate rewards for inclusive behavior
● Ongoing meetings about behavior
expectations (check in/check out)
● Discuss assertive behavior with potential
victims

25. Tier III Intervention
Tier III level of bully intervention is necessary when there
are clear or recurring cases of bullying in a classroom or
school.
Short and long term steps that not only can protect and
empower victims but also work with perpetrators to reduce
their bullying behavior.

26. Tier III Intervention
Selecting Students for Intervention
● Understand nature of problem
● Building rapport
● Reaffirm that he/she did not cause the bullying to occur
● Talk with other students
● Taking steps to correct the problem

27. Tier III Intervention
Selecting a Tier III Intervention
● Continuation or escalation of victimization and/or
perpetration
● Following the application of Tier II interventions would
indicate eligibility.

28. Working with Victims of Bullying
Indications that victims would need continued individual
interventions would be: extremely low self esteem,
continued or increased signs of depressive symptoms,
negative views of self, and increased social isolation.
● Important to create supports both external to and
within the child in order to promote a sense of control
and safety in one’s environment as well as to build
resiliency skills.
● Facilitate social interactions

29. Working with Victims of Bullying
● Victimized students should be encouraged to
believe that they have the power to affect
their environment as well as have their
needs met.
● Continuous positive regard and
encouragement

30. Working with Perpetrators
Perpetrators who maintain a defensive position and fail to
develop any behaviors of empathy for their victims or
remorse, insight regarding the impact of their behaviors
upon victims or their motivations, or a willingness to
change, would be likely candidates for continued individual
interventions.
● Important for teachers to use a straightforward delivery
of the facts of the aggression demonstrated toward peers
and the resulting consequences

31. Working with Perpetrators
● Build rapport
● Help identify long term consequences of continuing to
use dominance-oriented strategies
● Assist perpetrator in identifying the socially acceptable
ways to obtain status
Empathy and perspective talking should be built slowly
through modeling, role playing and restructuring the way
that the student perceives interactions with other
individuals.

32. Tier III Intervention Examples
● Serious discussions with bullies, victims, and
their parents
● Role play non-aggressive behavior with
bullies
● Role play assertive behavior with victims

33. Case Study
Henry was a shy sixth-grader who recently arrived at school from out of state.
One day as he was browsing a social media site he came across a page about the
school with pictures of students, including one of him labeled “The Fat Nerd.”
Upset, he posted a reply expressing his dismay.
The postings became nastier, and soon some students were making loud
comments in the lunchroom and on the playground. A teacher overheard some
of the names, and asked Henry what was going on. He described the social
media page and the cyberbullying.
http://www.growingwireless.com/be-aware/cyberbullying/news-case-studies-
on-cyberbullying

34. Questions to consider...
● What can the teacher and/or school do to
help Henry?
● How could this situation have been
prevented?
● How should the school address the
perpetrator(s)? What if a perpetrator cannot
be identified?

35. Progress Monitoring of Interventions
● Even if an intervention has been proven in
many cases, it is not guaranteed to work in
every case.
● Implementers should use data to make
decisions about interventions
● Progress monitoring uses objective
benchmarks to quantify behaviors

36. Progress Monitoring
● Measures short and long term changes in
individuals, classrooms, and schools
● Behavior should be measured before, during,
and after an intervention is implemented
● More than one form of monitoring should be
used

37. Progress Monitoring
● The type of monitoring should be based on the
intervention being used
● The implementer must decide what the desired outcome
is (perpetrator or victim, individual or group, what types
of thoughts, behaviors, or attitudes are being targeted)
● Define what type of change is desired and choose a
monitoring method that will measure that change.

38. Direct Behavior Observation
● Direct observation and rating of a child’s behaviors
● Provides concrete examples of the negative behavior
● Observer should have predetermined operationally-
defined behaviors in mind
● Record the frequency, duration, and intensity
● Establish a baseline, then select desired time interval
and compare information between sessions
● Must track progress over time

39. Daily Behavior Report Cards (DBRCs)
● Performance, behavior-based recording system
● Collects teacher’s ratings of predetermined behaviors
● Record disruptive behaviors and/or measure progress
● Should include no more than three behaviors, rated on a
likert scale
● Teacher completes each day during baseline and
intervention phases
● Electronic Daily Behavior Report Card (e-DBRC)

40. Behavioral Scales
● Questionnaires that measure behaviors,
thoughts, and feelings (students, teachers,
parents)
● Teachers’ perceptions of students’ behavior
● Student’s perceptions of conflict
management and victimization

41. Conflict Resolution Scale (CRS)
● Measures how a child or adolescent handles conflict
● Student chooses frequency of certain behaviors or
events (problems with friends, getting in trouble), 25
items, likert scale (1-5)
● Second part of the scale: student answers how easy or
hard it is to participate in certain behaviors (standing up
to friends, asking another child to play), 22 items, likert
scale

42. Young Adult Social Behavior Scale
(YASB)
● Measures pro-social and aggressive social behaviors in
adolescence and young adulthood
● Examinee chooses frequency of certain behaviors
(spreading rumors, arguments with friends, keeping
secrets) 14 items, likert scale
● Factor analysis shows three constructs (relationally
aggressive behaviors, socially aggressive behaviors,
interpersonally mature behaviors)

43. Social Skills Improvement System
(SSIS)
● Norm-based system used to gauge and monitor
students’ social behaviors
● Social Skills Scale, Behavior Problems Scale, Autism
Spectrum Scale, Academic Competence Scale
● Great depth and breadth into students’ social strengths
and weaknesses
● Can be filled out by the individual, parents, or teachers
● Can be administered every four weeks to monitor
progress

44. Conclusion
● Teachers who use effective management
techniques have a lower prevalence of
bullying in their classrooms
● Teachers’ behaviors DO matter in the
prevention and intervention of childhood
bullying.
● Teachers have a moral obligation to address
bullying.

45. References
Bradshaw, C.P., Sawyer, A.L., & O’Brennan, L.M. (2007). Bullying and peer victimization at school: Perceptual differences between students
and school staff. School Psychology Review, 36(3), 361-382.
Education World, Inc. (2015), retrieved from
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues/issues103.shtml
Growing Wireless (2015), retrieved from
http://www.growingwireless.com/be-aware/cyberbullying/news-case-studies-on-cyberbullying
Kolbert, J., & Crothers, L. (Eds.). (2013). Understanding and managing behaviors of children with psychological disorders: A reference for
classroom teachers. New York: Bloomsbury.
National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics (2011), retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013329.pdf
Pictures
https://mycyberwall.co.za/get-smart/life-skills/grade-6/bullying
http://www.iol.co.za/news/how-to-ban-bullies-from-the-classroom-1.1581916#.VX-AsWDZrds