The Role of Emotions in Classroom Conflict Management. Case Studies Geared Towards Improving Teacher Training

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to explore the emotional aspects underlying classroom conflict management, and secondly, to apply these notions to the contrasted analysis of two case studies. Our findings underscore the importance of examining teachers’ emotional regulation to better understand their performance when dealing with conflicts that affect classroom climate. In the final section, we make suggestions for introducing this perspective into initial teacher training through the use of Virtual Reality, a scenario that would allow pre-service teachers to experiment, record and reflect on affective and attitudinal issues that are decisive for effective classroom conflict management.

Virtual Reality for Teacher Training

“…Successful classroom management also involves cognitive dimensions such as comprehension and interpretation, skills needed to recognize when and how to act in the presence of conflict events in the classroom. In this regard, teachers require training to recognize the affective cues triggering various reactive and ineffective automatic response patterns, and to become initiative-taking in implementing strategies to reduce the impact of said triggers, thereby increasing their sense of efficacy (Alvarez et al, 2022).…”

“…Near the training proposal implementation within the master's degree in Secondary Teacher Education an extensive study of the emotional states associated with different conflict management strategies in the classroom was conducted (Alvarez et al 2022). New technical features were added to the design, such as the possibility of using a suit to capture the user's nonverbal communication while testing the product and learning its functionality (Alonso et al 2021).…”