Conflict Management and Resolution

Conflict is a part of interpersonal relations and is unfortunately unavoidable. We may think about a verbal fight with someone we care about as a conflict. While this is true, conflict is also seen in other aspects of life besides interactions with our environment and ourselves. It is usually experienced everyday, although minimally, so it may go unnoticed until there is something larger. In order to be a successful person in today’s society, students need to be able to react to conflicts effectively.

Teacher Background for Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is an imperative skill for people to develop in order to deal with reality. Conflict is experienced in different ways and can come from various factors. For example, cleaning the snow off your car before work or prepping your house for a flood are all examples of conflict with nature. An elderly person struggling with the newest phone is a conflict with technology. Conflict with external factors are common and easy to recognize, but not all conflict is external. Doubting yourself before an interview is not interpersonal - it’s intrapersonal. Intrapersonal conflict can motivate someone to take risks or hinder a person’s potential.

Not all conflict is negative. If there was never conflict, would there be any progress? If we all accepted social norms, how could anything change? Therefore, we must have conflict. Conflict is positive when it’s managed properly. A negative reaction to conflict may push either side further away or result in an undesirable outcome. In order to move forward, we must deal with conflict appropriately or else we’ll end up with more losing outcomes. The activities in this lesson plain aim to provide students with examples of conflict and the tools to practice their responses.

Essential Questions for Conflict Management and Resolution

1. What is conflict?
2. How do we resolve conflict?
3. How can conflict be positive?

Additional Activity Ideas fr Conflict Management and Resolution

1. Fix the Outcome - create a three-cell storyboard with a negative outcome from a conflict and ask the students to copy and change the story with a successful conflict resolution.
2. Perspective - create a storyboard where someone is built up with other stressors which makes a conflict harder to resolve, this may build a larger understanding for seeing people as a person.
3. Rotation Stations - Have students come up with their own conflicts without any resolution. Then have students send them to or switch computers with one another so they can complete their stories.