ECE 350 Trends in Early Childhood Education

With a rise in the concerns over bullyiing the school setting, more programs have been created to address the issue. For this assignment, research three "character counts" or anti-bullying programs available for the early childhood classroom setting.

Introduction 

Constant rise in bullying behavior at school setting has given rise to several programs globally for addressing the issue (Salmivalli, 2010). Bullying in childhood can have long-term impacts on mental health of children hence early childhood anti-bullying program for classroom setting is necessary. The scope of this report creates an anti-bullying program that can nurture long-term learning environment for young children. The background of the program is created in a school with young children.

Program Analysis

Anti-bullying program in classroom will include incorporating several activities as playground peacemaker and tree notes (Kärnä, 2011). In Playground peacemaker an older student will be asked to patrol around elementary school during time of recess. Such patrolling will allow them to reach out to children, who are playing alone and it can also act as a motive for collecting information to provide teachers regarding children who are struggling. Older children can also help younger children resolve disputes and make younger children make friends easily. In Tree notes, the large tree near the school will be adorned with anti-bullying messages (Ttofi, 2011). In case there are abundant number of anti-bullying notes attached to the tree then the same will be discussed in class. this will eventually impact in reduction of bullying behavior at school. Another popular technique that can be adopted in to build strength and confidence amongst young children (Merrell, 2008). An athletic program aimed at creation of fitness amongst kids can be a fun activity which will bring together various children who are bullied. While playing together such kids can work together in a team building exercise and have healthy habits for boosting of self-confidence and self-worth. This will help greatly in reducing conflicts and increasing strength and confidence amongst teammates (Williford, 2012).       

Table 1: Program Details

Source : Author

Benefits

Primary benefits of the program will be to build strength and confidence levels amongst children. Secondly, it will help in reduction of conflicts and bullying behaviors. It will help promote positive environment within the school and create an ambience for courage and motivation.  

Challenges

Most integral challenge will be in application of the program and in establishing peace. Children with bullying behavior might still create challenges and reduce effectiveness of the program. As there will be three strategies for applying of non-violent behavior and anti-bullying program it might be applied effectively.

Conclusion

The above strategies are applied worldwide across multiple schools have yielded positive results amongst children. It has helped reduce bullying behavior and also anxiety of children suffering from bullying of other children. There are multiple success stories where parents have come from home to report improvement of behavior in their children from such program. This program has been successful in fostering of non-violent behavior amongst young children. Though all programs are not set within classroom however such will be able to yield success in long term association with the child.   

References

Kärnä, A. V. (2011). A large?scale evaluation of the KiVa antibullying program: Grades 4–6. Child development, 311-330.

Merrell, K. W. (2008). How effective are school bullying intervention programs? A meta-analysis of intervention research.

Salmivalli, C. K. (2010). From peer putdowns to peer support: A theoretical model and how it translated into a national anti-bullying program.

Ttofi, M. M. (2011). Effectiveness of school-based programs to reduce bullying: A systematic and meta-analytic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 27-56.

Williford, A. B. (2012). Effects of the KiVa anti-bullying program on adolescents’ depression, anxiety, and perception of peers. . Journal of abnormal child psychology, 289-300.