Education Development Center.

In the face of pervasive violence in our schools and society, manyschools have begun to consider making violence prevention andconflict resolution part of their curricula. Violence prevention and conflict resolution curricula teach students alternatives to violence in resolving their interpersonal and personal problems. These programs rely on ongoing instruction and discussion to change the perceptions, atti-tudes, and skills of students. Overview A number of violence prevention curricula have become available since the mid-1980’s. Such programs typically strive to provide knowledge about violence and conflict, to increase students ’ understanding of their own and others ’ feelings, and to teach students the personal and interpersonal skills necessary to avoid violence. Curricula vary in their emphasis. Conflict resolution curricula focus on understand-ing conflict and learning negotiation-based responses to conflict. Violence prevention curricula emphasize increasing students ’ knowledge about violence and teaching students alternatives to fighting. Social problem solving curricula tend to focus o