Using Incomplete Tales in Group Role-Playing to Educate Teachers against School Bullying
Athina Ntoulia, Aikaterini Venianaki

Abstract
Bullying at schools is an issue of major importance with educational, social and psychological consequences. However, teachers’ education on bullying is limited only in informing teachers about the characteristics of the victims, the bullies and the bystanders, giving instructions for the prevention and treatment of the phenomenon. This information is necessary for its understanding, but not sufficient for teachers who are supposed to implement experiential learning methods to students, without being aware of such methods. As a result, teachers often act intuitively, looking for magic recipes and sometimes they report that they are not able to do anything (Κatsama, 2013). Experiential learning methods are applicable to teachers in order to be educated on bullying prevention and treatment. The purpose of this workshop, which is a part of a broader study for bullying prevention and treatment at schools, is to familiarize teachers with experiential learning methods, strengthening them, in order to be able to implement programs on bullying prevention and treatment. Twenty-four teachers (N = 24) from elementary and high schools participated in an organized workshop about bullying, after taking a course about bullying prevention and treatment. They formed five subgroups and played the roles of victims, bullies, bystanders. They listened to an uncompleted tale about bullying and each subgroup completed it by giving their own end. The participants cooperated and interacted expressing strong emotions, such as fear and anger. The usage of an uncompleted tale in a group role - playing activated mechanisms of identification and projection. The participants were identified with their own needs and emotions. The whole action cultivated empathy through stimulated experience (Polemi-Τodoulou, 2010), dynamic interaction and expression, and signaled the understanding of the complexity of acts, forms of behavior and emotions (Μoureli, 2010). Teachers need a more systematic education on bullying prevention and treatment via experiential learning methods. Experiential learning methods prepare them emotionally for the implementation of programs to cope with this phenomenon (Payne, 2000), mobilize the internal dialog on the development of interactive dialog on social issues and contribute to an effective understanding of the phenomenon of bullying.

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