Another possible solution is peace education. It is a method that trains children in skills such as empathy, listening, negotiation, and nonviolent conflict resolution. Peace programs in schools are designed to minimise fighting and bullying. They also ensure that students understand how others are feeling and how to resolve a conflict without violence.
The general effects of these programs are mostly positive in the view of researchers. UNESCO conducted a global survey of 79 peace education experiments. It found that 80–90 per cent of them were effective or at least somewhat effective in causing positive change (UNESCO, 2024). This means that school-based peace curricula do have an effect. At the very least, they show results in the short term. However, scholars observe that real cultural change in the long term might require long-term, whole-community intervention.
Read More: How School Peace Programs Influence Family Communication
Reducing Aggression and Violence
The reduction of violence is one of the obvious advantages of school peace programs. Consider, as an example, a mixed-methods study with Turkish students in the 6th grade (approximately aged 11–12). The study revealed that, as a result of a thoroughly designed program of peace education, the level of self-reported aggression in the students was drastically decreased
This experiment demonstrated that the group receiving peace training showed a significantly greater decline in aggression levels compared to the control group (Sagkal et al., 2016). The researchers also observed other signs of change in the peace education group. These included positive changes in student behaviours and improved relationships between students and teachers.
During the interviews, students claimed to get less involved in conflicts and have more non-violent means of expressing anger. These findings are in line with what other studies report: the skills of the children to resolve conflicts peacefully are most likely to limit bullying and violent behaviour. As an example, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) cites the results of hundreds of studies proving that social-emotional programs (including conflict-resolution training) result in a decrease in instances of bullying and aggression (CASEL, n.d.).
- Fewer fights: students in peace-education classes report that fewer fights or threats are witnessed. In the other study of 6th graders in a program in Turkey, they were significantly less aggressive than the non-students (Sagkal et al., 2016).
- Improved Deportment: Teachers observe the classroom to have fewer problem children. The same research determined that after the lessons on peace, the students encountered more positive interactions.
Similarly, CASEL observes that following the SEL-rooted peace programs, students demonstrate a decrease in their externalising behaviours and discipline issues (CASEL, n.d.). These data indicate that the classroom programs, even on a short-term basis, can equip children on how to resolve conflicts without inflicting hits, bullying, and brutal punishments. Upon learning to be able to step back and listen, young students transform their thinking that their peers are their rivals into seeing them as people with problems that they are able to assist in resolving.
Read More: How Can Be an Expert With Social-Emotional Learning?
Fostering Empathy and Prosocial Behaviour
Another key goal of peace education is building empathy – the ability to feel or understand what someone else is experiencing. Studies show peace programs can indeed raise children’s empathy. In one controlled study of Turkish elementary students (6th grade), a peace-education curriculum meaningfully increased students’ empathy score. Compared to a control group, both kids who received peace lessons showed higher empathy on psychological tests (Türnüklü et al., 2012). In other words, after the program, students were better able to imagine how others felt. What is the problem with it? Kids grow to be more humane and less confrontational when they are taught to start viewing the world the way other people do.
Psychological studies associate empathy with numerous prosocial consequences,s e.g. greater empathy predicts more helpful behaviour and better cooperation in class. One report notes that peace education in conflict zones explicitly aims to make people “gain the skills of empathy” so they “look from the perspective of ‘other’ and develop an understanding” (UNESCO, 2024). In daily school life, this means a child may pause before hitting, thinking “How would I feel if that happened to me?” Peace lessons often teach exactly this kind of reflection.
Recent work with older students has had similar effects. For example, a 2025 pilot study of a high school curriculum called Peace Literacy found that after instruction, teens became much better at linking emotions to aggressive acts. In practice, the students’ written responses showed a more sophisticated understanding of why people fight. As one report put it: “after Peace Literacy instruction, students demonstrated an improved ability to empathetically link emotional states with aggressive behaviours, in themselves but especially in others” (Clough et al., 2025). In plain terms, high school students learned to ask, “What was the hurt or frustration behind that anger?” rather than simply lashing out.
- Greater Understanding: Both children and teenagers in peace programs frequently describe the same lesson: understanding “why” behind anger. In classroom exercises, students role-play conflicts and discuss feelings. The Turkish study above asked students to apply empathy scales, and those in the peace class scored significantly higher (Türnüklü et al., 2012).
- Increased Caring Behaviour: There is more caring behaviour at the increased empathy levels. The studies indicate that, when children have an opportunity to feel with others, they will tend to behave in a nice manner or share and/or come to the rescue of a friend being bullied. This is explicitly promoted in peace education since students are presented as belonging to a community that will take care of others.
Combined, these results show that peace education can mildly reprogram the students’ perception of peers: they used to be enemies or people, and now they have to see common emotions. A whole classroom can gradually become a more helpful collaborative team.
Read More: The Role of Resilience Programs in Schools
Improving Conflict-Resolution Skills
Peace initiatives do not just impart feelings, but practical conflict resolution skills are taught too. Rather than shouting or striking, students are taught actions such as cooling down, listening to the opposing party, brainstorming options, and compromising on a reasonable decision. Skills among them are measurable. In one recent dissertation-level research study, a classroom of grade-4 students (approximately age 9–10) was given the UNESCO Learning to Live Together peace curriculum.
Children were given a pretest and posttest of conflict-resolution skills before and after. The outcomes: students applying peace education made considerable progress in conflict-solving capabilities as opposed to a control section (Özel Şen, 2024). This means that educators in the scheme increasingly taught learners to include the process of negotiation and peaceful resolution when bringing up issues.
After peace training, one child might say, “I feel upset. I can use the toy next, then you.” That kind of solution is exactly what these programs aim for. In qualitative interviews from the Turkish study, teachers reported that after the lessons, students often reminded each other of these steps in real arguments.
- Communication Skills: Students learn active listening and “I feel” statements. The 4th-grade study observed that, by the end, children were more likely to patiently hear each other out and propose compromises (Özel Şen, 2024).
- Problem Solving: Peace lessons encourage creativity: brainstorming multiple solutions together. Researchers found students became more open to collaborative solutions rather than winners/losers in fights (Özel Şen, 2024).
By practising these skills in class activities, students start to carry them into the playground and home. Over time, classrooms that use peace education report fewer shouting matches and more student-led peer mediation.
Read More: Misunderstood Moments: Managing Conflict Without Blame
Impact on School Climate and Relationships
Together, these psychological effects less aggression, more empathy, and better conflict skills, creating a friendlier school environment. Studies note that peace education often improves overall social behaviour and school climate. In the Turkish study of 6th graders, students not only showed reduced aggression but also demonstrated positive changes in behaviour and improved relationships (Sagkal et al., 2016). In practical terms, students reported easier friendships and more respectful teacher-student interactions after the program.
Likewise, the SEL research demonstrates that such activities as peace education give people a sense of safety and belonging. CASEL notes that following quality social emotional learning (which does include peace education), students have a feeling of greater support and fewer discipline issues (CASEL, n.d.). Anecdotally, teachers tend to report that the classrooms get considerably more cooperative: children are more likely to apologise faster, assist their peers more, and engage in group activities rather than competing.
Key outcomes across studies include:
- Higher Empathy
- Lower Aggression
- Better Conflict Skills
- Improved Relationships
These benefits appear in many countries and at grade levels. Most research is in elementary and middle schools (ages 8–14), but evidence from high school also looks promising. For instance, older teens in the Peace Literacy study learned to reinterpret aggression as “unskilled coping,” and became more empathetic as a result (Clough et al., 2025).
Read More: Psychologists Suggest 9 Things for Parents to Raise Empathetic Children
Challenges and Long-Term Considerations
The results are positive, still, researchers emphasise that most studies focus on temporary effects. UNESCO review observes that in the short term, we have definite evidence that peace programs can promptly educate new skills and attitudes, but proving intermediate and long-term change on deeply held opinions or broader social structure is more difficult (UNESCO, 2024).
A 2-month curriculum can increase empathy, whereas maintaining achievements may require ongoing effort. Critics have also mentioned that these types of programs only work in peaceful schools and that the real work of educating them in peace would require working on such factors as poverty, culture and conflict beyond the school.
Researchers can measure the outcomes (changes in psychology and behaviour of the students) even in short, professionally conducted peace lessons. Schools have an opportunity to provide children with the necessary skills in life by planting seeds of empathy and non-violence when individuals are young. Although the individual program alone is not a magic key, sometimes it triggers improvement: children learn that they cannot think to hit and hold the same mentality further on.
In conclusion, the evidence appears to favour the opinion that indeed peace education programs work: people tend to become less violent, more empathetic, less prone to falling into conflict and more prone to resolving it positively. How to make schoolwork with one another appears to make calmer, kinder and cooperative classrooms with students of all ages.
References +
Clough, S., Montfort, D., & Betts, S. (2025). Peace literacy as conceptual change: A pilot study. Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice, 5(1), 28–59. https://doi.org/10.5840/p4pp2025528
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (n.d.). What does the research say? Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-does-the-research-say/
Sagkal, A. S., Türnüklü, A., & Totan, T. (2016). Peace education’s effects on aggression: A mixed-method study. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 64, 45–68. https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2016.64.3
Türnüklü, A., Sağkal, A. S., & Totan, T. (2012). Empathy for interpersonal peace: Effects of peace education on empathy skills. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 12(2 Supplement), 1454–1460. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1000422.pdf
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). (2024). Peace education in the 21st century: An essential strategy for building lasting peace. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388051
Özel Şen, D. (2024). The effect of a peace education program on conflict resolution skills of 4th grade students (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105213
