ABOUT THE TRAINING

ABOUT THE TRAINING


The creation of this online course for school staff was made possible thanks to funding allocated by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

Its objective is to provide a simple and accessible online learning tool with the following elements:
  • Basic information and concepts for understanding and recognizing bullying in schools;
  • An effective approach to bullying prevention in classrooms and schools and for intervening in bullying situations;
  • An effective approach based on promising practices for mobilizing the whole school leading to effective bullying prevention and intervention.
The information contained in this course was gleaned from two primary sources:
  • COPA’s workshop on bullying prevention for teachers and other school staff: The Power to Change
  • The Professional Learning Module for teachers housed in the website for Safe@School, a joint initiative of COPA and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation: Safe@School

TRAINING COMPONENTS


MODULES
  • The online course on bullying prevention for school staff is organized in ten modules.
  • Each module includes a home page. Each home page is organized similarly so that participants can understand the overall structure and logic of the course.
  • The title of each module is presented as a question posed by a teacher. The introduction to each module describes the context and offers an overall answer to the question. This fosters learning by encouraging participants to begin to reflect upon the themes discussed in the module.
  • On each page, a quotation by a student is presented to help illustrate students’ perspectives on the subject broached in the module.

The following issues are explored in the ten modules:

  1. What is bullying?
  2. How can we recognize bullying?
  3. Who is involved?
  4. How seriously should bullying be taken?
  5. Why does bullying continue?
  6. What can teachers do to help prevent bullying?
  7. What can teachers do to interrupt bullying?
  8. What role can schools play?
  9. What are key elements of a bullying prevention and intervention plan?
  10. How can we make positive and lasting change?

Four steps

For each module, there are four steps to complete.

Step 1: Set the Scene

In Step 1, the theme of the module is presented through a scenario depicting a situation that takes place in a classroom or school. Each scenario is accompanied by three possible strategies for approaching the situation.

By choosing one option – or all three – participants learn about their choice of responses and the impact of each one. Clicking on an option reveals a window that presents a brief explanation of its impact.

An icon in the form of a facial expression is matched with each response. Participants can thereby assess whether or not they are moving in the right direction, according to the approach endorsed by COPA.

Following is the legend for each of the four icons, explaining the meaning of each facial expression:

You are DEFINITELY moving in the right direction!

You may want to reconsider your response.

Hmmm… this choice may create some problems for you.

Step 2: Increase Awareness

In Step 2, participants deepen their understanding of the module’s theme by reading relevant documents and viewing selected short documentaries by COPA. These films and documents contain testimonials by students and adults.

Step 3: Put it into Practice

In Step 3, participants move to the next level of understanding by choosing an exercise or an assignment. These learning activities enable them to explore the problem of bullying as it occurs in the field (classroom, school, and elsewhere) and to learn more about their students’ perspectives.

Step 4: Evaluate your Learning

In Step 4, participants can assess their learning by responding to a short questionnaire with the following objectives:
  • Enable participants to review the content of the various components in each module of the online course.
  • Enable participants to evaluate their own learning.
  • Enable COPA to evaluate the impact of the online learning tools presented in the course.

These questionnaires are not meant to test or evaluate participants, who will respond to them anonymously. We ask that you fill out the questionnaires and submit your responses.

Please note: In each module, we have provided a direct link to relevant sections of the Professional Learning Module on bullying prevention in the Safe@School website.

Build your Knowledge

To deepen learning and to encourage reflection, this section offers success stories as well as links to useful resources.

TOTAL DURATION OF THE COURSE: 3 to 5 hours