[hr-education] Changing a school's climate - new approach to school discipline

The Institución Educativa Concejo Municipal de Itagüí, a Colombian school
in Antioquia has taken a new approach to school discipline that has
demonstrated impressive results.
 
The school is one out of 7,900 schools participating in UNESCO’s
Associated Schools network (ASPnet).

Ernesto Corrales Gutierrez, the school ASPnet Coordinator, explains that
the school embraced the psychological concept of “Disciplina con amor” or
positive discipline.

The first phase took place over three years and targeted pupils aged 9 to
14 and their teachers. “We questioned traditional models of authority
based on punishment, blame and exclusion,” says Gutierrez. Teachers and
students discussed ethical and behavioural issues at regular class
meetings. Through this process, students learned: how to listen, respect
other points of view, solve problems and take responsibility for their own
actions. They were then invited to evaluate their own behaviour. The
school also held special training sessions for parents to keep them in the
loop.

Among the results noted were an 80 per cent decline in reports of poor
discipline and the resolution of a serious conflict between the director
and fifth-grade students. The project was then expanded to encompass all
of the school’s 1,400 students, aged 9 to 17.

“Projects like this help prepare children and young people to meet the
challenges of today’s world,” says Sigrid Niedermayer, International
Coordinator of ASPnet.

Contact: Sigrid Niedermayer, UNESCO Paris
E-mail: s.niedermayer@unesco.org
Website: www.unesco.org/education/asp

Source: Education Today Newsletter, 16 March 2006

 

 

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