Stopping bullying and cyberbulling in schools: discovering the best practices!

A new year has started at Erasmus Learning Academy and we are back with our adventures :)

The 30th of January a new group arrived in Bologna to start a new course about bullying behaviours. Their aim was to learn about effective ways to prevent all forms of bullying in education and school settings.

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We started with our introduction day where we brainstormed all the different kind of bullying behaviours: which forms does it takes? Who are the participants of a bullying scenario?  Which are the three main elements which distinguish bullying from conflict?
We moved on to talk about the victim: which are the risk factors that lead children to be bullied? And what can we do to prevent this situation? What are the initiatives that can be carried out to prevent bullying behaviours? We looked at these topics by 4 different points of view: family, school, individual and community.
One of the main and most difficult types of bullying to be eradicated is cyber bullying. Nowadays Internet has a major role in the lives of our kids and may have a negative impact on them. However, it also has some positive sides. With some practical activities we explored the world of cyber bullying and we also discussed about the differences between traditional and cyber bullying and about the things that they have in common. To understand and put ourselves in the shoes of bullying victims we implemented a very powerful activity which can be used both with students, parents and teachers to raise awareness. 

In order to prevent bullying behaviours it is vital to foster a positive classroom environment. This is why we explored the topics of emotional intelligence, membership and inclusion and collaboration. These are pillars for a supportive classroom and should not be underestimated. Of course we discussed about this with a lot of non formal and creative activities and games, thanks to which it was impossible to get bored ;)
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We want to conclude with a review left by one of our participants: “This course has been an opportunity to learn and find out new points of view. Sharing our work and knowing other people is the best way to improve our skills as teachers”