TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 494 the training, they facilitated an ice-breaker exercise. Trainers asked students to look into a brown bag for a few seconds that contained random items such as crayons, pencils, and paperclips without any specific directions. After all students had an opportunity to look in the bag, the trainers asked students to recall what they observed. Generally, students were somewhat confused and could not recall all the items. At that point, the trainers explained that it is helpful to know what to look for in specific situations in order to be effective; therefore, the goal of the training was to help students become aware of what to look for to identify and intervene when they observe bullying at school. After the ice-breaker, trainers conducted an audiovisual presentation teaching students about (a) the definition and different types of bullying (i.e., physical, verbal, relational, and cyberbullying), (b) the different roles associated with bullying (i.e., target, bully, and passive and active bystander), (c) the negative consequences associated with bullying, and (d) the STAC strategies for intervening. To maintain students’ attention and engage them in the learning process, graduate students incorporated small group activities throughout the audiovisual presentation. After the trainers introduced the different types of bullying, they provided students at each table with one posterboard, markers, pencils, and crayons, and asked them to write or draw examples of bullying they have observed at school. Each table was asked to address a different type of bullying (i.e., physical, verbal, relational, or cyberbullying) within four different contexts including (a) their classroom; (b) areas of the school or periods of time when adults often are not monitoring (e.g., hallways, staircases, bathrooms, and before and after school); (c) physical education class; and (d) recess. After the small groups completed their work, trainers asked a representative from each group to share their poster with the larger group. Next, after presenting the negative consequences associated with bullying, trainers provided students with a blank piece of paper and asked them to write down a bullying situation they have observed at school without including any names. Then, trainers invited students to crumple the paper up, and “throw” it at the trainers. The aim of this activity was to provide levity after presenting information that could potentially cause some level of emotional distress for students and for the researchers to learn more about the different types of bullying students observe at school. The presenters informed the students prior to the activity that they would randomly select a few examples to be shared with the group. Finally, the audiovisual component of the training concluded with a discussion of the STAC strategies. Experiential Role-Play Component. The experiential component of the training lasted 25 minutes. After discussing the STAC strategies, trainers divided students into small groups by grade level and practiced utilizing the STAC strategies through set role-plays. Role-plays included hypothetical bullying situations that students can encounter at school. For example, “at lunch break, some of the boys you are friends with love to ‘table top’ people. While they are running, the boys will dive in front of them with the intention of tripping them. Often times the people they are targeting end up falling flat on their face and really get hurt, even though they pretend it was funny. How can you use your STAC strategies here?” The role-plays were developed in conjunction with the school counselors at the two schools where the trainings were conducted. Trainers asked for student volunteers within each small group to act out the different characters embedded within the role-play. While one of the trainers briefly practiced the role-play with the students who volunteered, another trainer engaged the remaining students in preparing for a different role-play. Once the student volunteers were ready, they acted out the role-play. After they completed the enactment, the other students in the group were asked (a) what type of bullying was portrayed and (b) what STAC strategies could they utilize? After discussing the answers to the questions above, the trainers asked for another student volunteer to join the role-play and act as a peer-advocate utilizing