Opportunities for Improvement Teachers' Competence to Carry Out the Prevention of Bullying Among Pupils at School

Abstract

Republic of Lithuania Law on Education (2011) indicates that one of the school's goals -to ensure a safe environment for its pupils. However, the number of bullying at schools remains quite high. Regarding the number of pupils, experiencing bullying, Lithuania is in first place (HBSC 2014) among other countries. The purpose of the article -to reveal teachers' competence as a factor, ensuring the prevention of bullying among peers at school. The results of qualitative research, which reflects the teachers' attitude to their competence to deal with cases of bullying among peers at school, are presented in the article. The results of qualitative research reveal the attitudes of social pedagogues and class masters towards teachers' ability to carry out the prevention of bullying at school. The results of the survey show that the majority of teachers have the knowledge about bullying, its expression, however, some teachers state that they lack the ability to deal with cases of bullying among peers at school. Teachers experience difficulties mostly when they try to interfere in bullying situations among peers. The results of the research allow to make an assumption that seeking for the quality in preventing the bullying among peers, it is necessary to improve teachers' competences.

Harassment and Bullying among Students in Higher Education Institutions: Manifestation of Single Cases of Harassment and Bullying in Aspects of Demographic Variables

“…It is also confirmed by data of different researches performed in Lithuania -about 40% of teenagers are stating that they are not receiving a required teacher's emotional support (Petrulytė and Guogienė, 2017), teenagers also do not believe that in case of assault they will get help, and something will be changed (Gumuliauskienė, Juodaitytė and Malinauskienė, 2010). Still, a considerable number of teacher's state that they feel a lack of abilities allowing to tackle cases of peer bullying at school (Klanienė, Šmitienė and Vaitelytė, 2016).…”

Odnos kompetentnosti, percipirane ozbiljnosti nasilne situacije i intervencija učitelja u slučajevima vršnjačkog nasilja

“…U novije vrijeme istaknuti znanstvenici sugeriraju da osnova prevencije nije samo rad s djecom te oni prioritet daju radu učitelja (Olweus, 2008, prema Klanienė et al, 2016, odnosno smatraju da učitelji imaju ključnu ulogu u suzbijanju vršnjačkog nasilja (Klanienė et al, 2016;Yoon et al, 2016). Zbog toga je intrigantno pitanje koliko njihove kompetencije (kombinacija znanja, vještine, stajališta i vrijednosti) te neke osobine i profesionalne karakteristike mogu predvidjeti djelotvorne reakcije učitelja u situacijama vršnjačkog nasilja.…”

“…Kompetentnost učitelja u ovoj domeni uključuje ponajprije znanje o fenomenu vršnjačkog nasilja i njegovim manifestnim oblicima, sposobnost njihova prepoznavanja i dinamike, kao i uloga djece u nasilju, procjenu ozbiljnosti te razumijevanje utjecaja na dobrobit sudionika (Dedousis-Wallace i Shute, 2009;De Luca et al, 2019;Klanienė et al, 2016). Uz prepoznavanje, učiteljima su potrebne i vještine pomoći, kao i odgovornost i spremnost da u situacijama sukoba i nasilja adekvatno reagiraju te znaju odabrati i koristiti se najučinkovitijim strategijama i pružiti pomoć učenicima koji u nasilju sudjeluju (Klanienė et al, 2016). Uz poznavanje strategija intervencije potrebna im je i kompetentnost za provođenje prevencije te adekvatan odnos prema nasilju.…”

“…U istraživanju Klanienė et al (2016) utvrđeno je da većina ispitanih učitelja (66 %) ima znanje o nasilju i metodama pomoći, a samo ih je 21 % uvjereno u svoje vještine rješavanja različitih nasilnih situacija. Više od trećine (31,9 %) ih ističe da nisu sigurni kako zaustaviti nasilje te ne znaju kako raditi s počiniteljima (20,4 %) i kako pomoći žrtvama (16,8 %).…”

“…(Yoon et al, 2016). Klanienė et al (2016) navode da učitelji ne znaju kako raditi s počiniteljima niti kako pomoći žrtvi. U novije vrijeme manji broj učitelja koristi se i kooperativnim strategijama tako da u rješavanje problema uključuju i druge učenike, potiču međusobnu suradnju, definiraju aktivnosti i edukaciju na razini razreda, ali uključuju i druge učitelje, stručne suradnike te roditelje učenika (Bjereld et al, 2019;De Luca et al, 2019;Yoon et al, 2016).…”