Students watch a video showing a conflict situation and are asked to give their opinion about it, as well as play the role of the characters, thus improving their ability to face conflict in a smooth manner, examine multiple viewpoints as well as improve their empathy and communication skills.

• Over-head projector
• Scripts with the dialogues

90 minutes

• The teacher plays a video of about 15-20 minutes, a fragment of a soccer match, for example, in which a member of a team (X) accidentally (or not!) injures the captain of the opposing team (Y). There is a terrible argument, especially since it seems that team Y is winning, and there is not much time left. The member of the team X not only does not apologize, but he also insults a member of the team Y. The captain, keeping his calm, calls the referee, but the latter is not being very effective in keeping the situation under control.
• Divide the participants in small groups (e.g. 3 participants per group), and are asked to give their opinion on the event. Are they taking any side?
• Then, each group receives a script, and they will act as the characters from the video. They will see if they could sort things out differently.
• Then, they will switch roles, so the member of the X team will now play the member of the Y team.

Students will brainstorm on things to do and things to avoid doing when people are usually involved in a conflict.

• What conclusions can you draw about communication: why is it often difficult to understand each other?
• Think about competitive games: why do we often attach ourselves to one team rather tan another? Is this attachment based on reason? Can you think of any parallels in real life?