Index


Orientation to Life and Careers
Mary Sue Burkhardt

Child Care with a Future
Eleanor Keppler

Preventing Teen Dating Violence
John A. King

Conflict Resolution
Jean Pryzbylkowski

Southwestern Food Factory
Becky Newell

On the Bridge
Roxanne Trees

Conflict Resolution
Created by: Jean Pryzbylkowski

Results and Impact

Homework assignments, such as practicing listening skills, are structured so that all students can be successful.  These assignments usually involve an interaction with another person, ideally a parent.   However, in our population there are students who are not able to work with their parents.  For those students, the activities can be completed with teachers, friends, or other adults.

Parent signatures are required on the assignments to confirm that the activity was done, and more importantly, to inform parents of the skills their students are learning in Family and Consumer Sciences.  We’ve had many written comments on the activity sheets, such as, “Please make this assignment every week.” 

Another way we can evaluate effectiveness is to determine if the students are using the new skills and if they have noted changes in their own behavior.  We determine this by asking students to rate themselves on a post -test and to list conflict resolution skills they had used.  The skills most frequently used were “I-messages” and “adult” messages.   One student wrote: “My self-assessment has gotten worse.  There are more sometimes than before, where there should be an always.  I’m probably just stricter in assessing myself than before, since I am paying more attention to how I act.”

Reading the final project essays also gives us a picture of the skills that are being used.  For example, Ericka wrote about shouting and running to her room and slamming the door whenever her parents made her mad.  She went on to describe the results she had after changing her behavior.  She ended her essay by writing, “I will stop using child messages like ‘Well I don’t care if its 9:00 p.m., I’m staying up late’ and use grown-up messages like ‘I promise to be in bed by 9:30 if that isn’t too late.”  Then in bold letters she added, "Remember the ONLY PERSON YOU CAN CHANGE IS YOURSELF!!!”   Holly wrote, “I learned something, I did get treated a lot better when I behaved and did chores without being asked.”  

Helping young people learn to resolve problems in positive ways with their families and friends is a part of family and consumer sciences curriculum.  What better way to raise the visibility of the profession in the community!

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