Today is more than important to work on factors that can help preventing and managing Early School Leaving and conflicts. This is the aim of this training course which topic is every day more and more crucial even if there are no easy answers. With a holistic approach in mind, during the course the participants will learn how to identify the causes of this phenomenon and the best approaches and strategies to prevent, tackle and reduce it as well as the keys to conflict management.
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The new edition of the course “Preventing conflicts and tackling Early School Leaving​” took place in Bologna from  the 29th of June to the 5th of July. The participants came from all across Europe, with CLEMENT Nicole, GAILLARD Frédérique, NORMAND Carine  y MANGARON Laurence de Lycée professionnel VueBelle in La Réunion,  and Katharina Frenser from Bertolt-Brecht-Gesamtschule en Alemania.

El abandono escolar prematuro es una problema generalizado en toda Europa y al encontrarse en un contexto europeo, los participantes tuvieron la oportunidad de explorar diferentes perspectivas a escala nacional. El primer día, se centraron en definir lo que significa el abandono escolar prematuro y en identificar las principales factores de riesgo. Esto permitió a los participantes dibujar y compartir una imagen realista de su experiencia escolar con el Abandono Escolar Prematuro, empezando por las causas subyacentes y terminando con las posibles consecuencias.

Partimos de la base de que, para desarrollar un planteamiento de abandono escolar prematuro, necesitamos profundamente conectar con nuestros estudiantes, to be closer to their interests and their feelings. The participants engaged in hands-on activities to learn about the importance of escucha activa y inteligencia emocional in creating social connection.

The participants went on discovering the gestión de conflictos topic. First, we dedicated some time for a perspective change. With the support of an inspirational TED Talk, the group who initially associated the idea of conflict to something essentially negative, realized afterwards how conflicts provided in their life unique opportunities to improve their relationship, communication and understanding.
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Afterwards the group practiced some non-formal activities to reflect the importance of membership and collaboration. Strategies for collaborative work and peer-education were analysed.
The group focused then on how to battle negativity in the classroom, through group reflection and practical activities. We analyzed different conflict management styles and discussed their concrete application in different situations. Then the group defined and characterized the main “negative” student types and developed practical tips and suggestions on how to deal with them in the most effective ways. The participants engaged in a team challenge that allowed them to learn how to foster a mindset of growth in our students.

In the end, we analyzed through visual tasks and group reflection the phenomenon of bullying and possible estrategias to become upstanders and stop bullying.

The key word of this week’s training course was “transformation”: we learned how to change perspective on conflicts, how to transform the strong and sometimes negative energy of some students into something positive and productive, how to change our mindset from fixed to growth, and how to transform a group of people into a team.
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Más información sobre este curso aquí.