TITLE

Psychological Interventionin the Classroom

Good practices

School

Secondary School of Halki Island

2nd Lyceum of Kos island

MAIN OBJECTIVE

• Improving student relations, towards more cooperative practices.
• Exploitation of the psychologist’s input data from classroom teachers

AGE GROUP

11-17

SHORT DESCRIPTION

The meaning of the term classroom management has changed from describing discipline practices and behavioral interventions to serving as a more holistic descriptor of teachers.

Successful teachers employ strategies “for establishing rules and procedures, organizing groups, monitoring and pacing classroom events, and reacting to misbehavior.

• Teachers were informed about the special needs and characteristics of adolescence and were educated on how to communicate effectively with a teenager, considering both the specific traits of this age but also the particular needs of a teenager growing up in the close knit and isolated during the winter community of Halki. During each meeting complications and difficulties in their teaching role were discussed as well. Moreover, teachers were always informed about the actions and discussions that were taking place with the students, in order to be able to incorporate similar topics and actions in their school curriculum.
• The objectives of meetings with the students were to enhance discussion and interaction skills, offer an alternative way of thinking and acting and educate about important social aspects of life.

To meet this goal students saw the movies “Pay it forward (2000)” and “Good Will Hunting (1997)”. Both movies gave the opportunity for further exploration of topics concerning equal opportunities, being different, being underprivileged and being deprived of fundamental human rights. Also the values of forgiveness, generosity and respect to ones self and others were discussed. In addition to these, a step to further educate teenagers about bullying and human rights was set.

More meetings were held after that, to explore, through educational material and interactive videos, the phenomenon of bullying and social exclusion. This happened by taking into consideration the perspectives of all the parties involved, “bully”, “victim” and “observer”. Moreover, through similar educational material the concept of human rights was introduced and students were able to understand and discuss each one of the human rights and their application or not in everyday life.