Adolescent Paper Secondary General Methods Bullying in the Classroom
One of the most important goals for any educator, including a music education, is to create a safe psychological environment for all the students within the classroom. With a safe psychological environment, students are more willing to contribute to class discussion and have a better chance of actually taking information away from the class that they would not have gotten if they did not feel safe while learning. It is the job of the teacher to make sure that every student has the chance of maximum learning, but if there is bullying going on in the lives of the students entering and exiting the room, then that is what is on their mind, not what is being taught in the classroom. The music teacher could have a rock star lesson planned every class period, but a student that has bullying on his or her mind will not be able to concentrate to the level that is needed of them.
A secondary general music teacher needs to understand that it is not just the victims of bullying that are at a mental health risk, but those who witness bullying have evaluated mental health risks. A study by Ian Rivers concluded that if the student is a victim of bullying or is a witness to bullying, the student is more likely to suffer from mental health risks and substance use.[1] Both of these risks could push the child to the point where he or she could fall behind in their studies and become inferior to their peers. Once a child falls behind in the class, he or she will continue to fall behind and will most likely fall behind in other classes.
Rivers is set that not only is the victim going to suffer, but every study that he has performed has involved the effects of the bullying on the witnesses as well. Another studied that was conducted by Rivers concluded that those students who had reported being bullied or witnesses to bullying were more likely to having thoughts of ending their lives.[2] Students who suffer from bullying or witness bullying may see people being pushed around or taunted for what they value in life or what they enjoy doing. Bullying creates the idea in the child’s mind that these are things that society does not agree with and in turn, something is wrong with them. Students that suffer from this feeling also suffer from somatization, obsessive-compulsiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism.2 All of these side effects plus the mental risks that come from being a victim or a witness will contribute to the student falling behind and not being able to keep up with other students in the classroom.
But there are ways that music teachers and teachers of other subjects can help prevent bullying. One way is just to simply learn more about bullying and what are the different ways to prevent or stop it. There is no sense in someone trying to attempt to help with a situation if they know nothing about the subject or the content involved in the situation. A general music teacher would never ask his or her students to attempt a musical lesson without prior knowledge that will help them succeed. Christopher D. Bell conducted a study on the effects of teachers and students being involved in a group program for bully prevention. The results showed that the group program improved teacher and student efficacy in handling bullying in the classroom and knowledge of bullying.[3] Bully programs are one way for the teacher to become a step closer to becoming an expert in the subject of bullying. And with the teacher better prepared and fellow students made aware of the effects of bullying, there is a better chance of success in creating a safe psychological environment.
Another way of bully prevention is structure and support within the classroom. The structure of the school is the strictness and close supervision from the teachers and administrators, and the support is warmth, acceptance, and involvement from everyone in the school staff. A study by Anne Gregory showed a direct correlation between the students’ perspectives of structure and support and perspective a bullying within the school. If the student rated the school with having more structure and support, the student usually expressed that there was little bullying in the school.[4] The classroom is the same way; if there is structure in the classroom and support from the teacher, there will a positive atmosphere while learning. It comes back to classroom management skills on the teacher’s part. General music is the one class where kids can express themselves, but there needs to be structure with the classroom at the same time so that the students do not end up hurt. And no matter what, the students need support if they are to learn and grow in their musicianship after they move on from general music. Those two simple steps do not seem like they would do much, but they are the key between a victim and a child learning.
The last thing that music teachers need to understand is that bullying may not happen in the classroom, and it may not even happen in school. Most students who are being bullied in school are also bullied online or via text message.[5] Sometimes, the student is not even safe from bullying inside the music classroom. Even if the music teacher is very adamant about keeping the students safe from bullying inside the classroom, the student could still be bullied electronically while in class. The music teacher needs to be aware of the multiple modalities of bullying and even though they do not see it occurring does not mean that it is not happening.
[1] Ian Rivers, “Observing bullying at school: The mental health implications of witness status.,” SchoolPsychology Quarterly, 24(4), 211-223. [2] Ian Rivers, “Participant roles in bullying behavior and their association with thoughts of ending one’s life,” Crisis: The Journal of CrisisIntervention and Suicide Prevention, 31(3), 143-148. [3] Christopher D. Bell, “Bully Busters abbreviated: Evaluation of a group-based bully intervention and prevention program,” Group Dynamics:Theory, Research, and Practice, 14(3), 257-267. [4] Anne Gregory, “Authoritative school discipline: High school practices associated with lower bullying and victimization,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(2), 483-496. [5] Juliana Raskauskas, “Involvement in traditional and electronic bullying among adolescents,” Developmental Psychology, 43(3), 564-575.