Critical Analysis of Journal Article
An Investigation of Middle School Teachers’ Perception on Bullying
The article “An Investigation of Middle School Teachers’ Perception on Bullying”, by Stewart Waters and Natalie Mashburn seeks to investigate rural middle school teachers’ perception regarding bullying. The research problem being addressed is middle school teachers’ perceptions towards bullying and the ramifications of different types of bullying within the school environment. The researchers chose to study classroom teachers’ perceptions because they are often the first school employees to witness bullying between students, therefore if and how they decide to respond to bullying incidents has a direct correlation to the effectiveness of …show more content…
Olweus (1993), the founder of bullying research, defines bullying as an imbalance of strength, repeating action and occurring regularly over time. A significance has been placed on the phrase, “imbalance of strength,” meaning, bullying cannot be used if two or more students whom are nearly the same size, physically or psychologically, are fighting or arguing. According to Nishioka, Coe, Burke, Hanita, & Sprague, 2011; Psunder, 2010, differentiating between direct-physical, direct-verbal, indirect, overt, and relational forms of aggression becomes difficult because bullying surfaces in multiple forms. Direct-verbal aggression is stated as “hurtful teasing, name calling and assigning unkind nicknames,” which is one of the more known forms of aggression among students (Psunder, 2010, p. 218). Verbally- and physically-aggressive behaviors are stated as two characteristics of overt aggression that intends to threaten or harm another student; however, harming a student’s relationship with others is noted as relational aggression (Nishioka et al., 2011). Addendum of verbal and physical forms of bullying, is also aggressive behavior which is demonstrated through electronic text, well known as cyberbullying (Diamanduros, Downs, & Jenkins, 2008). Cyberbullying stems frequently through social media sites and allows bullying behaviors to exceed beyond the school day and into students’ homes. The continual existence of cyberbullying in children’s lives can have a traumatic impact and needs to be persuade with extreme caution by students, parents, teachers, and
An Investigation of Middle School Teachers’ Perception on Bullying
The article “An Investigation of Middle School Teachers’ Perception on Bullying”, by Stewart Waters and Natalie Mashburn seeks to investigate rural middle school teachers’ perception regarding bullying. The research problem being addressed is middle school teachers’ perceptions towards bullying and the ramifications of different types of bullying within the school environment. The researchers chose to study classroom teachers’ perceptions because they are often the first school employees to witness bullying between students, therefore if and how they decide to respond to bullying incidents has a direct correlation to the effectiveness of …show more content…
Olweus (1993), the founder of bullying research, defines bullying as an imbalance of strength, repeating action and occurring regularly over time. A significance has been placed on the phrase, “imbalance of strength,” meaning, bullying cannot be used if two or more students whom are nearly the same size, physically or psychologically, are fighting or arguing. According to Nishioka, Coe, Burke, Hanita, & Sprague, 2011; Psunder, 2010, differentiating between direct-physical, direct-verbal, indirect, overt, and relational forms of aggression becomes difficult because bullying surfaces in multiple forms. Direct-verbal aggression is stated as “hurtful teasing, name calling and assigning unkind nicknames,” which is one of the more known forms of aggression among students (Psunder, 2010, p. 218). Verbally- and physically-aggressive behaviors are stated as two characteristics of overt aggression that intends to threaten or harm another student; however, harming a student’s relationship with others is noted as relational aggression (Nishioka et al., 2011). Addendum of verbal and physical forms of bullying, is also aggressive behavior which is demonstrated through electronic text, well known as cyberbullying (Diamanduros, Downs, & Jenkins, 2008). Cyberbullying stems frequently through social media sites and allows bullying behaviors to exceed beyond the school day and into students’ homes. The continual existence of cyberbullying in children’s lives can have a traumatic impact and needs to be persuade with extreme caution by students, parents, teachers, and