Resources for Teachers
This section of the site is focused on providing practical information and resources that teachers, teachers-in-training and teachers-of-teachers will find useful. Use the sidebar menu to explore specific areas of CRE practice.

Classroom Activity Suggestions
Here's a few activities for classroom use that can help infuse conflict resolution ideas into the learning environment. These originally appeared in a Teacher's Conflict Resolution wall calendar that featured activities for each month of the year.- The Clenched Fist
- The Power of Nonviolent Communication – a Story
- Sing-along: Get Steady
- Active Listening and Open Ended Questions
- Discuss The Butter Battle Book
- Feel Your Heart
- Diversity Bingo
- Peer Mediation Best Practices
More examples can be found in the activity collection archive.
Videos of Possible Interest
- A More Accurate RULER – Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
- PAX Good Behaviour Game
- 4Rs (Reading, Writing, Respect & Resolution) in a 2nd Grade Brooklyn Classroom
- Cyberbullying Toolkit for Educators
- In a Responsive Classroom
- Social and Emotional Learning After School
- Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
- Conflict of Friends
- How to Teach Math as a Social Activity
- Emotional Intelligence: An Overview
See MORE VIDEOS...
Related Conference Presentations (viewable online)
District-wide Conflict Resolution, Peer Mediation and Bullying Prevention Model- 30 years of Impact
- Presented by: Kathy Bickmore, University of Toronto
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Fairfax County Public Schools Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation Training 2010
- Presented by: Joan Packer, Swaim Pessaud, Kristen John
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Field Services Arbitration Process: Building Stronger Teachers through Facilitated Dialogue
- Presented by: Anne Price and Marcia Roach, Cleveland State University
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Conflict Resolution Skills for Youth and Adults – Incorporating Traditional Teaching and RJ
- Presented by: Ellen Kyes, The University of Notre Dame
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Connecting Schools, Communities, and Families through SEL
- Presented by: Linda Lantieri, Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Online Peer Mediation Platform
- Presented by: Karen DeVoogd, Cynthia Morton, Judy Tindall, Kristen Woodward
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Sample Catalog Resources
Below you'll find a randomized listing of up to 20 related items (we may have more...) drawn from our Resource Catalog.
| Resource Title | Description | Links |
|---|---|---|
| What we know about bullying | Pdf document with information on bullying. | |
| Curriculum in mediation, A: Lesson plans gateway | 5-page pdf document which presents a teacher's guide for training peer mediators, provides links to workbook lesson plans for conflict management, communication skills, role playing exercises and agreement writing. | |
| Pre-Service Teacher Curriculum | A 247-page pdf document containing a four module curriculum designed to provide pre-service teachers opportunities for analyzing the impact of self as an individual teacher in the classroom. This includes information on pursuing self- assessment, developing communication skills through active and reflective listening, rapport, and trust building, and defining the processes used in managing conflict. The curriculum is also designed to help pre-service teachers identify and strengthen skills used in effective communication to better manage conflicts, especially those in classrooms. Finally, the curriculum is intended to assist pre-service teachers with skills that will be developed through the use of conflict management strategies. |
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| Conflict resolution, peer mediation and young people's relationships: Technical Report | 74-page PDF technical report that investigated, "what schools could do to improve young people's relationships with each other, with teachers and with their families. This is a key question for schools, policy-makers and pressure groups; there are currently programmes and initiatives on behaviour, citizenship, healthy schools and many other areas which have relationships at their core. Within that broad area, the team looked in more detail at school programmes that encourage conflict resolution and peer mediation." Ten studies relating to conflict resolution, all completed after 1994, were reviewed in detail. | |
| Teaching about conflict through citizenship education | 18-page pdf article which examined "Through interviews and observations in case study primary and secondary schools in the West Midlands, we therefore explored what was understood by this notion of global citizenship, and under this umbrella, what it was that students and teachers thought should be learned, we found that the most outstanding concern for students was war and conflict – and in the current context, not just historically, after giving some detail of these concerns, this paper attempts to develop a typology of different ways that schools teach about conflict before making more general arguments about the importance of peace education within a citizenship education framework and the role of teachers in tackling both difference and indifference." | |
| Briefing paper for trainee teachers of citizenship education: Managing conflict between individuals | 9-page pdf paper "written specifically for trainee teachers of citizenship education, it is one of a series of papers that explores the theme of “conflictâ€; this one specifically addressing the issues relating to “resolving conflict between individuals,†the paper aims to help the reader learn more about conflict and to identify the learning opportunities that arise for exploring the issue with young people through citizenship education, using classroom and wider school based activities as well as a community focus." | |
| SCORE Quick Reference Guide to Peer Mediation for Students | 10-page guide for student peer mediators that reviews the mediation process and provides practice tips. Developed for use by the Student Conflict Resolution Experts (SCORE) program in Massachusetts as "a quick reference guide for students to accompany their training". | |
| Reducing youth crime | 4:50 podcast discussing "school-based violence prevention programs [which] have been proven effective at reducing violence, truancy, drug abuse, and delinquency." | |
| Youth & conflict: A toolkit for intervention | 35-page PDF toolkit which is, "part of a series that explores how development assistance can address key risk factors associated with conflict. One area that is receiving increasing attention is the relationship between young people and violence ... This document: 1) examines key issues related to youth participation in violence; 2) discusses lessons learned in developing programs for at-risk youth; 3) presents a range of program options; 4) includes illustrative monitoring and evaluation tools; and 5) identifies relevant USAID mechanisms and partners. Together, the elements of this toolkit are designed to help raise awareness about the linkages between young people, development aid, and conflict; and to help officers integrate a conflict perspective into their development programming." | |
| Gender based violence: Challenging norms, building capacities, promising practices, creating peace | 16-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Second International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education which "provide[s] a new context for prevention of intimate partner, domestic and sexual violence, participants will build their capacity to engage in social change work, learn current promising and best practices for intimate partner and sexual violence prevention." | |
| Briefing paper for trainee teachers of citizenship education: Resolving conflict between countries | 6-page pdf briefing paper which "aims to introduce pupils to the values of open-mindedness and respect for others’ views, teachers should concentrate their approach on analysing with students how such destructive and confrontational situations arise, and how they can be avoided ... a commitment by states to this process is articulated in Article 2(3) of the United Nations (UN) Charter, in which they agree to settle their disputes by peaceful means, these means are outlined explicitly in Article 33(1), which proclaims that states “shall seek early settlement of their international disputes by negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or other peaceful means of their choice.†| |
| Virginia Tech shooting: Lessons for dismantling norms about violence | 10-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Second International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education, which "offers a Preliminary inquiry into pedagogical actions for addressing the intersections among gender, race, ethnicity, social class, mental illness, and violence, the limitations of the thinking that pervaded the recent public discourse on the Virginia Tech Shooting will be revealed and a responsive pedagogical action proposed." | |
| Fitting in: Lesson and activity excerpted from the Tanenbaum curriculum passages to immigration | 6-page pdf lesson plan which explores the ideas of home, belonging and fitting in, for grades 1-6. Activities include, "The Sharing Circle," "I am, we are poems" and "Unity and diversity circles." | |
| Teacher development for conflict participation: Facilitating learning for "difficult citizenship" | 15-page pdf article which "examines the professional development-related opportunities available to teachers to support their facilitation and teaching for peacebuilding citizenship, the few teacher learning opportunities offered seem unlikely to enhance teachers' capacity to foster diverse students' development of agency for difficult citizenship, much of the explicit professional development available in the schools examined emphasizes teachers' control of students and containment of disruption (peacekeeping), instead of their facilitation of diverse students’ participation in constructive conflict management (peacemaking and peacebuilding), professional learning opportunities are often relegated to short, fragmented occasions, primarily during teachers’ volunteer time after school: this severely limits their potential to foster critical dialogic learning on the difficult issues of citizenship education practice." Includes bibliography. | |
| Creating and promoting positive school climate in Ohio’s schools: Anti-harassment, anti-intimidation | 33-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Second International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education, presenting "A review of an anti-harassment, anti-intimidation or anti-bullying model policy for education from the state of Ohio in the United States." | |
| Making friends, being friends: Cooperative conversations for grades K-6 | 26-page pdf handbook which "show[s] K-6 teachers how Mix It Up themes can be woven into classroom discussions, issues, events, holidays, routines and academic content. Mix It Up is about talking with and connecting with those around you. The lessons center on group conversations combined with cooperative learning — termed “cooperative conversations†in this handbook. These conversations help children reach across social boundaries, get to know each other and gain respect for different viewpoints." | |
| Encyclopedia of peace education | Online resource which, "provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarly developments in the field to date as well as new insights from across the globe from the various actors involved in advancing peace education internationally. Thus, this online resource serves as a living reference guide that traces the history and emergence of the field, highlights foundational concepts, contextualizes peace education practice across international and disciplinary borders, and suggests new directions for peace educators." | |
| Teaching global and local conflict in the classroom | 24-page pdf document that accompanied a professional development program hosted by the World Affairs Council. Document consists of a list (with web addresses) of resources that relate to confict and conflict resolution. Recommend sites and sites that include lesson plans are noted. | |
| Listening without formulas | 15-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax VA, which discusses the use of reflective listening, I-messages and paraphrasing in conflict resolution. | |
| Elicitive Curricular Development: A Manual for Scholar-Practitioners Developing Courses in International Peace and Conflict Studies | This book is co-authored by Peace Studies Innsbruck core faculty Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Adham Hamed and Noah B. Taylor and it outlines central principles of the University of Innsbruck's approach to curricular development for Peace and Conflict Studies around the world. It has been authored in the framework of the project Education for Peace in the Iraqi Higher Education System, implemented by the University of Innsbruck in partnership with the Iraqi Al-Amal Association the United Nations Development Program in Iraq and nine Iraqi Universities. The ECDM is a systematic collection of experiences and lessons identified in academic contexts around the world in Austria, Cambodia, Colombia, Brazil, Ethiopia and Iraq. The ECDM reflects core elicitive principles such as the importance of a focus on relationships, looking beyond the episode of conflict, collaboration, communication and local knowledge. These principles are consistent with the mission of the Research Center for Peace and Conflict (InnPeace) to teach, learn and research as reflective processes of relevant social questions of peace and conflict transformation. This manual offers helpful guidelines for academic and administrative staff, as well as international cooperation partners trusted with developing peace and conflict courses at the graduate and postgraduate levels. |