Understanding Aggression:
Coping with Aggressive
Behavior in the Classroom
|
Dr.
Karen Lea |
|
|
Phone: |
509-891-7219 |
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Office
Hours: |
8
a.m. to 5 p.m. PST Monday - Friday |
|
Email: |
|
|
Address: |
Virtual
Education Software |
|
|
23403
E Mission Avenue, Suite 220F |
|
|
Liberty
Lake, WA 99019 |
|
Technical
Support: |
Introduction
This course is about violence in
America, about the aggression in our schools, classrooms, streets, homes and
elsewhere. The course speaks to the hate, the fights,
the anger, the crimes committed and the victims in our schools and society. It
is a course about students, children, teenagers, adults
and neighbors, all of us.
The course will consider the many forms
of aggression, both criminal and otherwise; its costs and motivation; its
perpetrators and targets; its likely and unlikely
locations; its impact on our schools, the children; and, most especially, its
several causes and promising solutions.
Topics of interest will include
violence and the challenge of raising and working with children; aggression in
our classrooms; American youth gangs and their influence; past and future
sports violence; “hot spot” locations of frequent violence; and the
aggression-promoting role of alcohol, temperature, driving, television
and other features of modern life. The course also will answer questions such
as: Is aggression always bad? How do aggressive thoughts lead to aggressive
actions? Is aggression, at least for some people, an addiction? Does the victim
contribute to being attacked? Is dating a dangerous proposition? How are the
acts of aggression dealt with in other countries, and are there any lessons for
America?
The goal of this course is to help
educators and adults in general better understand how aggression affects our
lives and the lives of children. Hopefully such greater understanding and more
skilled efforts at prevention will substantially reduce the aggression and
violence that has become all too common in America’s schools.
This computer-based instruction course
is a self-supporting program that provides instruction, structured practice,
and evaluation all on your home or school computer. Technical support
information can be found in the Help section of your course.
|
Title: |
Understanding Aggression: Coping with
Aggressive Behavior in the Classroom |
|
Publisher: |
Virtual Education Software, inc.
2002, Revised 2008, Revised 2010, Revised 2013, Revised 2016, Revised 2019,
Revised 2022 |
|
Instructor: |
Dr. Karen Lea |
Academic Integrity Statement
The structure and format of most
distance-learning courses presume a high level of personal and academic
integrity in completion and submission of coursework. Individuals enrolled in a
distance-learning course are expected to adhere to the following standards of
academic conduct.
Academic Work
Academic work submitted by the
individual (such as papers, assignments, reports, tests) shall be the student’s
own work or appropriately attributed, in part or in whole, to its correct
source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group prepared) materials as if
they are one’s own work is unacceptable.
Aiding Honesty in Others
The individual will encourage honesty
in others by refraining from providing materials or information to another
person with knowledge that these materials or information will be used
improperly.
Violations of these academic standards will result in
the assignment of a failing grade and subsequent loss of credit for the course.
Level of Application
This course is designed to be an
informational course with application to work or work-related settings. The
intervention strategies are informational and not to be used without proper
training and administrative approval.
Expected Learning Outcomes
As a result of this course,
participants will demonstrate their ability:
1.
To review the history of
aggression and how society came to be such an aggressive place
2.
To identify the causes of
aggressive behavior, both internal and external
3.
To explain how aggression
is expressed in various social settings such as schoolyards, classrooms,
sports, homes, etc.
4.
To identify perpetrators
and victims of aggression and violence
5.
To identify locations of
high aggression and violence
6.
To provide solutions for
reducing aggression and violence in classroom and other school settings
7.
To provide information on
how educators can help students/children reduce feelings of aggression and
violent tendencies
Course Description
The course, Understanding
Aggression, has been divided into four chapters and five to ten
exercises within each chapter. The first chapter reviews the history of
aggression in America. It explains how we (the country) got to where we are in
terms of aggression and violence. The chapter discusses the cost of aggression.
It asks the question: Is America Safe? It discusses whether aggression is
always bad. The chapter concludes with odds and ends and aggression in general.
The second chapter deals with how we
have learned to be aggressive. It discusses how aggressive thoughts many times
become aggressive actions. The course reviews the “us versus them” side of
aggression and violence. Chapter 2 also deals with how alcohol, temperature and
driving can increase aggression and violence. The chapter reviews the role of
television and how TV may be a tutor for violent behavior. Is high aggression
often found in people who tend to have low empathy? This chapter will discuss
this issue. The chapter will also cover how words and teasing can be
expressions and forms of aggression.
The third chapter centers on aggression
and violence as crimes. It explores arson, assault and
crimes of fear. The chapter also will discuss vigilante justice and/or
injustice. Along with criminal aggression the chapter takes a
look at guns and gangs in America’s schools; how bullying affects our
schools and classrooms; how dress can affect acts of aggression and violence in
schools and society. The chapter speaks to sexual harassment and the aggression
involved with acts of harassment. There are also several sections on aggression
and violence in the home, parental fighting and how this affects children in
the home.
Chapter 4 speaks to
working with and raising children to resist violence. It gives suggestions to
educators and parents on how to deal with and counteract aggressive or violent
behavior, but educators should not use these interventions without training and
administrative approval. This chapter deals with dating, and how it can be
impacted by aggressive behavior and date violence. It speaks to how television
affects the aggressive behavior of our children. The chapter reviews child
tantrums, and what to do about them. Chapter 4 is summarized with several
exercises on win-win scenarios for remediation and effective problem
solving techniques.
The chapters and exercises are
sequential and, although it is not required, they should be completed in the
order in which they are presented in the program. After completing these four
chapters you should have a framework for understanding and working with
aggressive behavior. This also may help you understand why students with high
aggression are a challenge in a regular education setting.
After you complete each chapter of the
course, an examination will be used to evaluate your knowledge and ability to
apply what you’ve learned. An explanation of the examinations will be given
later in this syllabus.
Chapter 1: Introduction & Characteristics
·
Introduction
·
How Did We Get Here?
·
The Costs of Aggression
·
Is Aggression Always Bad?
·
America, the Safe
Chapter 2: Behaviors & Techniques
·
Learning to Be Aggressive
·
Us Versus Them
·
Aggressive Thoughts and
Aggressive Actions
·
Low Empathy, High Aggression
·
Television as a Tutor:
Aggression 101
·
Alcohol and Aggression:
Courage in a Bottle
·
Does the Victim Help
Cause Violence?
·
Words That Hurt
·
Hot Days, Hot Tempers
·
Auto Aggression
·
Jump! Jump! The
Suicide-baiting Crowd
Chapter 3: Acts & Forms of Violence
·
The Journey to Crime
·
Other Acts of Aggression
·
Vigilante Injustice
·
Fear of Crime
·
The Home & Family
·
Sports Violence: Past,
Present & Future
·
Play Fighting & Real
Fighting – Is there a Connection?
·
The Ride to & Through
School: Safe or Scary?
·
Teaching Prosocial
Behavior to Antisocial Youth
·
A Short Course on Gangs
Chapter 4: Preventing Violence
·
Raising Children to
Resist Violence
·
Tantrums
·
Nonaggressive Children From Aggressive Environments
·
Dating as a Dangerous
Game
·
Let’s Both Calm Down,
Then We’ll Talk
·
Take my Wife, Please
·
Why Is Aggression so Hard to Change?
·
Downsizing Deviance
·
Complex Problems Demand
Complex Solutions
·
A Look to the Future
Student Expectations
As a student you will be
expected to:
·
Complete all four information sections showing a
competent understanding of the material presented in each section.
·
Complete all four section examinations, showing a
competent understanding of the material presented. You
must obtain an overall score of 70%
or higher, with no individual exam score below 50%, to pass this course. *Please note: Minimum exam
score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should
refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score
requirements are.
·
Complete a review of any
section on which your examination score was below 50%.
·
Retake any examination,
after completing an information review, to increase that examination score to a
minimum of 50%, making sure to also be achieving an overall exam score of a
minimum 70% (maximum of three attempts). *Please
note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university;
therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your
minimum exam score requirements are.
·
Complete a course
evaluation form at the end of the course.
Examinations
At the end of each chapter, you will be
expected to complete an examination designed to assess your knowledge. You may
take these exams a total of three times. Your last score will save, not the highest score. After your third attempt, each examination will
lock and not allow further access. Your final grade for the course will be
determined by calculating an average score of all exams. This score will be printed on your final
certificate. As this is a self-paced
computerized instruction program, you may review course information as often as
necessary. You will not be able to exit any examinations until you have
answered all questions. If you try to exit the exam
before you complete all questions, your information will be lost. You are
expected to complete the entire exam in one sitting.
Instructor
Description
Karen Lea holds a Ph.D. in education.
Dr. Lea has fifteen years of experience teaching at the K–12 level and another
fourteen years’ experience teaching education courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate
levels. Those fourteen years in higher education included six years as a dean
at a university and seven additional years in charge of assessment and
accreditation at a university. Currently, she is a lead program development
owner at Western Governors University. Dr. Lea has been professionally
published over fifteen times and has served on over a dozen panels and boards,
including serving on the NCATE (CAEP) Board of Examiners.
Contacting
the Instructor
You may contact the instructor by emailing
karen_lea@virtualeduc.com or by calling 509-891-7219 Monday through Friday. Calls
made during office hours will be answered within 24 hours. Phone conferences
will be limited to 10 minutes per student, per day, given that this is a
self-paced instructional program. Please do not contact the instructor about
technical problems, course glitches, or other issues that involve the operation
of the course.
Technical
Questions
If you have questions or problems
related to the operation of this course, please try everything twice. If the
problem persists please check our support pages for
FAQs and known issues at www.virtualeduc.com and also the Help section of your
course.
If you need personal assistance
then email support@virtualeduc.com or call 509-891-7219. When contacting
technical support, please know your course version number (it is located at the
bottom left side of the Welcome Screen) and your operating
system, and be seated in front of the computer at the time of your call.
Minimum
Computer Requirements
Please refer to VESi’s
website: www.virtualeduc.com or contact VESi if you have
further questions about the compatibility of your operating system.
Refer to the addendum regarding Grading
Criteria, Course Completion Information, Items to be Submitted, and how to
submit your completed information. The addendum will also note any additional
course assignments that you may be required to complete that are not listed in
this syllabus.
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Course
content is updated every three years. Due
to this update timeline, some URL links may no longer be active or may have
changed. Please type the title of the organization into the command line of any
Internet browser search window and you will be able to find whether the URL
link is still active or any new link to the corresponding organization’s web
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2/21/23
JN