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Principles and practices of peace education
Principles and practices of peace education

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3 Managing myself in difficult situations

The last part of this session introduces you to research into the science of human emotions. Such knowledge can help us understand what is happening when we experience strong feelings, increasing our capacity to manage difficult situations. However, you should remember that the brain is a hugely complex structure, and everyone’s biology and experience is distinct. Strategies for helping children regulate their emotions should be conscious of that diversity and work with who children and young people are, rather than ideas of what they ‘should’ be.

Activity 3 An introduction to emotions and the human brain

Timing: Allow approximately 20 minutes for this activity

Watch this video Welcome to the brain’s amazing drugs cabinet from the charity Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution.

As you watch, think about:

  • How might understanding emotions help the children and young people you work with?
  • Why is it important to be able to ‘stand in another’s shoes’?
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Teaching children and young people to understand and regulate their emotions can support their development responses to conflict, helping them find ways to build just and positive outcomes. They can learn to understand what happens to them in situations involving powerful emotions such as anger. ‘Standing in another’s shoes’ is a metaphor for being able to understand the responses and needs of others as well as their own – a fundamental part of building positive relationships.

In the next activity, you will plan a session to support children and young people in exploring their emotions.

Activity 4 Recognising feelings in oneself and others

Timing: Allow approximately 20 minutes for this activity

Now you will plan a series of activities for a session on feelings with the children and young people you work with.

Part 1 Developing vocabulary to talk about feelings

The feelings map activity below is a suggested starter activity for helping a group develop vocabulary for talking about feelings. The ‘map’ is a circle (or other shape) divided into four quarters. Each quarter is labelled with a category of feelings, in this case ‘Happy’, ‘Scared’, ‘Angry’ and ‘Sad’. Participants have a set of cards with different feelings on them and are asked to sort the cards into the feelings category they agree is most appropriate. It’s important that this process allows plenty of time for exploration and discussion.

Begin by trying the activity for yourself in the interactive below, by moving the cards around into the categories you think they belong in. Then use the response box below to consider how you might adapt it to use with your class or group.

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Discussion

You’ll notice there are no right or wrong answers in this activity. This is because the aim is to think – either by yourself or with others (if you are completing the course with a group) – about how emotions feel to you, and how this might be the same or different for others. For example, being angry can be exciting for some people and upsetting for others. An activity such as ‘Feelings Postcards’ below can help develop these discussions when working with a group.

Part 2 Recognising and describing feelings

Now read through the following two activity outlines for describing and recognising feelings. How might you adapt them for your own class or group?

Feelings postcards – describing your own feelings

Add to your feelings map by giving each participant a small piece of card. They can choose a feeling from the map and illustrate it however they wish. They might use words to describe it, draw a picture or look up images on the internet. Participants might discuss the similarities and differences between the postcards to think about their own and others’ experiences of each feeling.

Feelings detective – recognising feelings in others

In this activity there are two sets of feelings cards. Choose 1 to 4 members of the group to be feelings detectives. Give one set of the feelings cards to the ‘detectives’.

Give each of the remaining players a feelings card. Each of these players then acts out the feeling on their card. The detectives then place their feelings cards next to the person they think is showing that feeling. Remember, places where actor and detective disagree offer opportunities to discuss the different ways in which people might express their emotions.

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Discussion

Any activity should allow plenty of time for children and young people to discuss their feelings, thinking about their mental and physical responses and how their feelings might relate to their behaviour. As well as being able to express their own feelings, children will need to listen carefully in order to understand others’ experiences.

CPD sessions

If doing the activity with a group, you might create your feelings map on the floor in the centre of a circle. You could use preprepared cards or ask participants to write an emotion they’ve experienced recently on a piece of card and sort it on to the circle.

In Session 3 of this course, you’ll look more closely at the principles of working in circles and you may wish to return to your ideas after that. Remember, if you are signed in to OpenLearn, your responses are saved as notes so you can return to them later to develop further.