Lesson Study as a Vehicle for Teachers in Understanding and Researching Bullying Situations

• In Event: 63.065 - Lesson Study in the Netherlands: Current Trends and Issues

Abstract

Since 2015, Dutch secondary schools are mandated by law to actively intervene in situations that compromise the health of their classrooms’ social dynamics (i.e., bullying). From 61 available antibullying programs on the Dutch market to support schools only thirteen were evaluated as effective (Wienke, Anthonijsz, Abrahamse, Daamen, & Nieuwboer, 2015).
Bullying is a dynamic social process with at its core dominant bullies who perform repeated, goal-directed aggressive behaviors towards victims who perceive themselves powerless to defend themselves (Olweus, 2010; Salmivalli, 2010). Therefore, bullying and victimization tend to only be reduced to a certain extent, with a best-case scenario of a roughly 20% reduction (Veenstra, 2014). From observational research, we know that approximately 90% of all school bullying occurs outside of the awareness of teachers (Atlas & Pepler, 1998; Craig, Pepler, & Atlas, 2000). Teachers are—partly because of this—only aware of the specific and unique social dynamics in their classrooms up to a certain extent. Even when teachers are fully aware of the bullying dynamics within their classroom, they fail to adequately intervene with the intention to put a stop to the bullying in over 25% of the instances (Atlas & Pepler, 1998). This information is alarming, because research has also shown that competent and intervening teachers tend to have a strong positive effect on the feelings of social safety and well-being of their classroom students (Veenstra, Lindenberg, Huitsing, Sainio, & Salmivalli, 2014).
Two gaps in teachers’ abilities to meet students’ needs were addressed: (1) limited insight in their classroom’s social dynamics, and (2) limited knowledge of, and experience with, designing effective interventions tailored to their classrooms’ unique social dynamics. Two effective procedures, PestPlotter, a diagnostic e-tool for visualizing classroom social dynamics (Pronk, & Goossens, 2016, and Lesson Study (LS) were combined and their effectiveness was tested with a team of teachers all teaching one secondary school classroom in upper preparatory vocational education. The research question was as follows: To what extent do teachers demonstrate growth in their competence to identify obstacles in classroom dynamics and to intervene in response to these obstacles as a result of participating in LS-team geared towards enhancing social safety for this classroom?
The selected secondary school classroom was known for its problems with social safety, and the teachers all expressed incompetency coping with these students. Students filled in the diagnostic e-tool at the beginning and after the LS-cycle. All LS-meetings were video-recorded, other student data was collected (e.g., lesson observations), interviews with students were held after the research lesson, and teacher talk was analyzed.
The results of the study were promising and indicated an increased self-perceived competence in teachers’ ability to analyze and intervene in their classroom’s social dynamics by designing tailored interventions that address obstacles in these dynamics. Data are still being analyzed.
LS is traditionally used to strengthen teachers’ pedagogical skills and pedagogical content knowledge. In this study, it’s focus shifts to interpreting and intervening in social dynamics, thus broadening its applicability in educational contexts.

Author

• Sui Lin Goei, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences