Students are fighting over limited classroom resources. How can you resolve the conflict effectively?

First, calm the situation and separate the students to give them time to cool down. Listen to each student's perspective actively, validating their feelings. Clearly identify the problem and understand the root cause of the conflict. Facilitate a solution by encouraging the students to brainstorm together, fostering cooperation and ownership. Help them agree on a fair plan to share resources, such as taking turns or setting a schedule. Long-term, establish clear classroom rules for resource use and teach conflict resolution skills. Promote a cooperative classroom culture through group activities that emphasize teamwork and sharing. Regularly review and adjust resource management strategies to prevent future conflicts.

Reframing the problem is an effective, forward thinking way to address issues around resources. For example, when resources appear to be limited, design think your way to a better solution. What resources are essential? What other ways can this information or task be addressed. It’s very easy to fall back on solutions like share/trade/do without. For example, can interviews, observation, in person visits provide similar data and/or address a subject from another aspect? It’s harder-though more creative-to rethink our methods and as we learn more in the process.

Having a clear, fair schedule for use of equipment from the start of a course will help avoid potential disputes in the future. Encourage the students to take ownership of the schedule by allowing them to decide on a fair system which all students will agree upon.

Absolutely agree! Teaching students problem-solving skills is indeed crucial. However, it's equally important to prepare them for the reality that not everyone will always come to an agreement, even when following a structured protocol. Equipping students with strategies for handling situations where consensus isn't reached is imperative. This includes teaching them how to navigate disagreements respectfully, seek compromise, and understand when to escalate issues or seek external mediation. These life skills are essential for fostering resilience and adaptability, both of which are invaluable in real-world scenarios.

Reflection is a mutable model and should be explicitly taught. Start small. “Take a deep breath as you think about…”. Reflection is essential to develop analysis skills and can grow into something as simple as individual/small group/whole class reflections like “Plus/Delta, what worked/what is an area of growth?” and develop into something as impactful as rank data studies. Adding reflection increases the cognitive load for the student. Depending on how it is taught and framed, it can be a life skill to support student growth for years to come.

One solution that is underused in schools and workplaces is to charge the users to create a solution (“We lack enough resources. What are some ideas you have to complete this work?”). Although this was touched on above, making this approach the main method is key. Brainstorm ideas, consolidate themes, and listen to multiple stakeholders to produce innovative solutions not before considered. It often results in the type of buy in absent in a top-down delivered edict. This model may take longer to design, though the result will often produce a more lasting and cooperative result.