Project Methodology

• Assessment of Variation in US State Laws Addressing the Prevention of and Response to Teen Dating Violence in Secondary Schools

• The Dibble Institute: Teen Well-being and Development

  • Article: Educators are key in protecting student mental health

    • Technology risk assessment tools

    • Sources of Strength Model

    • Florida State University: Student Resilience Project Toolkit

  • Article: Parental warmth on high-conflict days helps teens to feel loved

    • The study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting daily fluctuations in feeling loved are common even in long-term relationships. How parents and teens communicate and resolve conflict may be most important to maintaining a healthy relationship long-term, said the researchers. (Brennen, 2020)

• One Love Foundation

  • Article: Ten Signs of a Healthy Relationship

  • Article: Ten Signs of an Unhealthy Relationship

• The Relationship Foundation

  • Adult Childhood Experience (ACEs) Questionnaire

• Love is Respect Project

  • Healthy Relationship High School Educator’s Toolkit

Problem-based learning: Students learn about a subject by working in groups to solve an open-ended problem. This problem then drives the motivation and learning. 

• The core of this method provides many opportunities for conflict resolution. Students will meet in groups containing students with disagreeing viewpoints to put their new active listening and self-advocacy skills to the test. 

Role playing: Students take on specific roles and act them out in a case-based scenario for the purpose of learning course content or understanding “complex or ambiguous concepts” (Sogunro, 2004: 367). The guidelines for the role-play are usually modeled on realistic criteria so the students can get as close to “the real thing” as possible. 

• • Students will be creating their own roleplay scenarios, based off of experiences they have seen or participated in. This will ensure realistic circumstances, and a higher engagement through intrinsic motivation, as students will likely use this practice in their real lives. 

Video: Video-based learning is a great tool for instructors to effectively convey information to the students participating in the Heart to Heart seminar. In an effort to enhance the learning experience for the students participating in our seminar, we will use videos to depict real-life scenarios that students can analyze using activities like Think-Pair-Share. Video content can also be used to teach conflict resolution skills through animated skits that challenge participants to utilize their critical-thinking skills. After each session, the videos can uploaded to online platforms like YouTube that students can refer back to to find the information covered in the session. The affordances of using this form of technology are:

• Active Engagement

• Self-Paced Learning

• Flexibility

Text: Students who participate in the Heart to Heart seminar will be encouraged to document their feelings and concerns through journal activities at the end of each session. This reflective practice allows students to process their emotions as well as develop the competencies to identify areas where they can improve. Students will have the option to complete journal entries using traditional notebooks or through journaling applications like Notability that can be used on multiple devices: smartphones, tablets and computers. The affordances of using this form of technology is: 

• Self-awareness

• Data Analysis and Synthesis

• Personal Reflection

Social Media: Social media platforms is a useful tool as it's not only a popular medium but also can be used to facilitate discussions and collaboration among students. We will utilize social media platforms like Twitter(X) and Forumotion to pose questions to create private group chats and forums where students can seek advice from peers, provide support to one another,  share conflict resolutions strategies and discuss personal experiences with complex situations. The affordances of using social media platforms are:

• • • • • • • Digital Story Telling 

            • Content Creation

            • Collaborative Information Discovery

            • Private Social Media Groups

After conducting our research phases, we discovered our instructional solution should focus on providing students practice in realistic conflict scenarios, and hone their abilities for active listening, self advocacy, and empathy. It was also important to us to provide a safe and constructive learning environment where students can receive personalized feedback from a professional, as well as engage in peer feedback.

With this in mind, we decided to set our program after school hours, so students can devote an hour weekly. This will also provided enough time in between to process their learned information, and work on self-reflection through online journalling activities. 

Using social learning theory, the beginning weeks will expose students to correct and exemplary conflict resolution behavior. The facilitator will then lead the class in discussion on key characteristics they identified from their own interpretation. Building on their own observations, students will review appropriate questioning techniques to understand, identify, and clarify the issues, needs, and perspectives of others, as well as reframing negative language and perceptions to facilitate constructive dialogue.

Once students have begun forming connections with each other and understand the key principles to conflict resolution, they will be giving the opportunity to practice in a controlled environment. Students will compile a list of conflict scenarios they may have seen or experienced in the past. Broken into pairs, students will take turns roleplaying these scenarios to receive peer feedback. Students will also participate in a self-assessment rubric. 

Through these activities, students will not only understand the important components to conflict resolution, but they will analyze their own strengths and areas for improvement. Students will also feel empowered to take the skills they were able to practice in a controlled environment and bring them into their daily lives. Conflict resolution is a skill they will work to hone and improve their entire lives, but this course will provide a stable foundation upon which they can build new skills. To support their growth, the guidance counselor facilitating the one-month course will meet individually with students one-month, six-months, and one-year after completion (if they are still attending the school) to review their progress and any setbacks they may have encountered. 

See Evaluation Report