Definition or Description:

Conflict management is the practice of identifying and handling conflict in a sensible, fair, and efficient manner. Conflict management requires such skills as effective communicating, problem solving, and negotiating with a focus on interests.

Comment:

Conflict: A battle, contest of opposing forces, discord, antagonism existing between primitive desires and instincts and moral, religious, or ethical ideals. Conflict occurs when two or more people oppose one another because their needs, wants, goals, or values are different. Conflict is almost always accompanied by feelings of anger, frustration, hurt, anxiety, or fear.

On occasion, teachers face conflict in classroom or other situations. Some courses deal with sensitive content or areas in which individuals have strong opinions. Issues related to grades, course requirements, activities, and processes may also lead to confrontations. Students sometimes react or overreact to content material, to other students, or to teacher comments. Avoiding adversarial relationship in the classroom is almost always useful and SoTL studies could consider such issues in an effort to develop processes, activities, and even guidelines for avoiding and managing conflict.

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