Teaching Students to be Peacemakers is a K-12 school-based program that addresses conflict resolution by promoting a positive school climate, cooperative (as opposed to competitive) learning, and communication and anger management. TSP is founded upon the program developers’ research on integrative problem-solving negotiations and social interdependence theory. The program is based in the idea that conflicts are an inevitable and pervasive part of school life; and when they are managed constructively, conflicts can 1) increase achievement and long-term retention of academic material; 2) increase the use of higher-level cognitive and moral reasoning; 3) enhance healthy cognitive and social development; 4) focus attention on problems and increase the energy needed to solve them; 5) release anger, anxiety, insecurity, and sadness; and 6) strengthen relationships. Teaching Students to be Peacemakers is highlighted in the Illinois Council for the Prevention of Violence’s Peacing It Together: A Violence Prevention Resource for Illinois Schools.

Target Population

- Grade Level: from  Kindergarten to  Twelfth grade