Skip to main content

Dan Olweus and the OBPP

First of all, there might be an important question popping up in your head: who is Dan Olweus exactly?  

Dan Olweus was a Swedish-Norwegian psychologist and research professor at University of Bergen, Norway. His main research interest was bullying, and with his work, he became the pioneer of researching it. At the end of his PhD program in Sweden, he wrote a dissertation on aggressive behaviour among young boys. Interesting to mention that he was the president of the International Society for Research on Aggression from 1995 to 1996. 

In the 1970s, Olweus did a systematic study in connection with bullying among children. Later, the study with the result was published in 1973, named “Aggression in the Schools: Bullies and Whipping Boys”: the mind-blowing fact is that it is considered as the first official publication about bullying IN THE WORLD. 

(Source is you want to learn more about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Olweus ) 

THE OBPP 

The OBPP stands for Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, which was first published by Dan Olweus in the 1980s. Its goal is to reduce bullying at schools by restructuring the classroom and promoting positive behaviours by rewarding them. 

Citing the official website, OBPP is...: “The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is a school-wide, comprehensive framework focused on systemic change to create a safe and positive school climate. The goals of the OBPP are to: 

  • reduce existing bullying problems among students 

  • prevent new bullying problems 

  • achieve better peer relations [...]” 

 

The program consists of four main components—four different but strongly connected approaches to handling bullying.

SCHOOLWIDE: 

  • Conduct committee and staff trainings 

  • Refine the school’s supervisory system 

  • Involve parents... 

 

INDIVIDUAL 

  • Supervise students’ activities 

  • Hold meetings with students involved in bullying 

  • Hold meetings with families of involved students... 

 

 

CLASSROOM 

  • Hold regular class meetings 

  • Hold meetings with students’ parents... 

 

COMMUNITY 

  • Develop partnerships to support your program 

  • Help spread anti-bullying messages... 

 

 

With this short summarization, I wanted to introduce you to his incredible work on bullying prevention! I hope you found at least some useful information.:) 

If you wish to know more about this Program, here is the link for the OFFICIAL WEBSITE where you can find a lot of details:  https://clemsonolweus.org/about.php  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brian Giner and PDA Bullying platform

  Following my last post, where I talked about the documentary Acoso Escolar from ARTE.tv, I caught my attention the figure of Brian Giner, so I decided to look into his book Golpeado pero no derrotado It’s a work for all ages in which he shares his personal experience during his school years. The author emphasizes that the book isn’t just meant for students, but also for parents and professors. Through his story, he hopes to raise awareness about the importance of taking action in cases of bullying. Apart from publishing his book, he also gives talks on bullying prevention to students in the first to third years of ESO in catalan high schools. Based on his own experience, Brian aims to shed light on cases like his so that victims don’t feel alone and can see an example of resilience. While researching his book, I came across a very interesting platform called PDA Bullying . It’s a collaborative initiative involving various institutions aimed at promoting best practices for the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Salutogenic approach and a personal opinion

  As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, on the website called PDA Bullying , among various resources, there is a section dedicated to explain the Salutogenic approach . After doing some research, it becomes clear that this approach gets its name because its main goal is to promote health and well-being . The platform aims to address bullying from this perspective, adopting a strength-based approach that focuses on individuals' potential and the creation of a cooperative community working toward a shared goal . It slightly reminds me of the No Blame Approach we studied in class, as it also refers to a method based on compassion and a solution-focused outlook , rather than assigning blame. Their aim is not simply to act against bullying, but rather to overcome it , moving beyond a simplistic understanding of bullying as just a dynamic between two individuals. Instead, they view it as a broader social process . For this reason, the protocol designed and implemented by...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guidelines for Bullying in German Schools

In Germany, the Ministry of Education published guidelines for schools on how to deal with bullying in schools. The following characteristics identify bullying: Intent to Harm, Repetition, Power Imbalance, and Helplessness. If bullying is detected, they provide teachers with 5 steps to follow. First, they should act immediately. This includes halting any aggressive behavior and ensuring the victim is safe. Also, they are obliged to assess if the already mentioned bullying criteria are met. Then, Teachers and school staff need to discuss the situation with colleagues to decide on the best course of action. This might involve engaging the victim and the bully in separate conversations and determining the next steps. Lastly, the victim should be provided with support to offer a safe school environment again In addition to the teacher guidelines, there are also ones for School Leadership Teams. First, they have to ensure that anti-bullying policies are being followed. This includes suppor...
Post a Comment
Read more