Peer Mediation Programs: Benefits and Key Elements
  Joel
Fredrickson, Assistant Professor, Bethel College
Geoffrey Maruyama, Vice Provost,
Professional Studies, University of Minnesota
American schools share the one critical factor creating interpersonal
conflict: they are full of human beings, immature human beings at
that. Interpersonal conflicts rob classrooms of important instructional
time as teachers step in to resolve issues. Deans, counselors, and
vice principals find that conflicts divert a substantial amount
of their time to resolving disputes or dealing with the aftermath.
Lacking the tools to resolve conflicts, students get into trouble
by escalating differences. Valuable time and emotional energy are
drained when learning takes a back seat to conflict.
In response to the increasingly violent resolutions of interpersonal
conflicts between students, most schools have adopted violence prevention
programs. Among the most popular are peer mediation programs. Peer
mediation helps to teach students that there is an alternative to
violence, that talking out conflicts in a civil, respectful manner
can work no matter your age or your level of anger. It also moves
the responsibility for resolving the matter from the school's adults
to the students actually involved. The program described by the
Johnsons in the following article is one of the best mediation programs.
Peer mediation programs give students more constructive options
for dealing with conflicts. For example, if two students are fighting
because each feels that they have been treated disrespectfully by
the other, a teacher may give them the option of being referred
to a peer mediator rather than going to see the Dean of Students.
The student mediator helps the two talk out their differences in
a structured, negotiated manner The mediation may help the students
to "save face." It gives them a reason not to have to resort to
aggression to resolve their conflict. Giving students options for
resolving their conflicts is a critical feature of peer mediation
programs.
History of Peer Mediation
Peer mediation programs as we currently know them began in the
early 1980s with the help of community mediation centers. The most
prominent of these programs, Conflict Managers, was introduced by
the San Francisco Community Board for Policy and Training, and has
served as a model for others around the country.
The Conflict Managers program works at both elementary and secondary
schools. Teachers are trained in mediation and conflict resolution
skills so they can, in turn, train a select group of students to
manage conflicts among their peers. The conflict managers receive
15 hours of training. The
training emphasizes active listening, teamwork (student mediators
work in pairs), and learning specific steps in the mediation process.
Role-playing enables the students to practice before serving as
mediators in their schools.
At the elementary level, trained mediators settle disputes on
the play ground. Peer mediators are trained to use this conflict
resolution process:
Step in. If you see a conflict brewing, introduce yourself
and ask both parties if they want to solve their problem.
If they agree, go to the area designated for solving problems.
Explain and get agreement to the five basic ground rules: a)
Agree to solve the problem; b) Don't call each other names; c) Do
not interrupt; and d) Tell the truth;
Decide who will talk first. Ask that person what happened
and how he/she feels, repeating back what is said using active listening
skills. Do the same with the other party.
Ask the first person and then the second person for alternative
solutions.
Work with the students to get a solution that they both think
is good.
After the agreement is reached, congratulate the parties and
fill out a Conflict Manager Report Form (Davis, 1983).
At the middle and high school level Conflict Manager suggests
a more formal intervention process.
-
The conflict is referred to mediation
by an administrator, teacher, or student;
-
Those students named in the referral
are approached about the possibility of using mediation to resolve
their dispute; and
-
If students mutually agree to follow
the procedures for mediation described by the student mediator,
the session takes place in a special room set aside for mediations
(Davis, 1983; Burrell & Vogl, 1990).
An important element of the mediation process is that the disputants
are not forced into mediation; it is up to them to decide if they
want the mediator's help. The mediators are trained to be a neutral
third party, one that facilitates communication so that the disputants
can find a solution to the conflict.
How successful was Conflict Manager? Principals of four schools
using the Conflict Manager program jointly wrote a letter to the
school superintendent praising the program and stating that "Conflict
Managers make significant contributions to a calm, friendly atmosphere
on the playground and in the school.... We feel that conflict resolution
should be the 'fourth R' in public school curriculum at all levels"
(Davis, 1986, p. 291).
 The
success of this San Francisco program and others around the country
could not go unnoticed. Efforts in school-based peer mediation became
organized in 1984 with the development of the National Association
for Mediation in Education (NAME). This organization has brought
order and structure to the field by bringing together many different
conflict resolution and mediation programs.
NAME has also become an important clearinghouse of information
for schools attempting to promote constructive conflict resolution.
When NAME was first established in 1984, there were only half a
dozen well-developed peer mediation programs. By 1988, the number
had grown to well over 200 (Cheatham, 1988). Now the number of well-developed
programs is easily into the thousands.
Positive Results
Although research studies on the effects of peer mediation programs
are few and their methods have not always been the best, current
evidence suggests that peer mediation programs can have a positive
impact on schools. First, peer mediators of all ages are proving
that they can successfully mediate conflicts. A vast majority of
peer mediation programs report a resolution success rate between
80 and 95 percent. This means that of the disputes that go through
mediation, a resolution is reached about 90 percent of the time.
Some studies have followed up on the disputes two weeks after
the mediation, finding that a vast majority of the resolutions (80-96%)
remained successful (Crary, 1992; Burrell & Vogl, 1990; Johnson,
1994).
Second, student mediators benefit as they develop better interpersonal
skills. Not only do they gain important mediation and conflict resolution
skills, but they also seem to become more responsible and acquire
better communication skills. Some get a boost in self-esteem.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, as a result of peer mediation
programs many schools have seen a reduction in overall suspensions
and a reduction in suspensions specifically for fighting. For example,
suspensions for fighting decreased between 45% and 70% at 6 five
New York City high schools during the first year of a peer mediation
program. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, as a result of peer
mediation programs many schools have seen a reduction in overall
suspensions and a reduction in suspensions specifically for fighting.
For example, suspensions for fighting decreased between 45% and
70% at five New York City high schools during the first year of
a peer mediation program (Lam, 1989). A high school in Minneapolis
reported similar results, with overall suspensions decreasing by
55% and suspensions specifically for violent behavior decreasing
52% (Conbere, 1994).
The majority of peer mediation programs reported on in the research
literature are considered successful. It should be noted, though,
that programs that are successful are more likely to be reported
in the research literature, while there may be many unsuccessful
programs that have not been reported.
Also, the data and anecdotal stories from one study of 31 schools
in Wisconsin suggest that peer mediation programs are considerably
less successful in high schools "where whatever is 'cool' takes
precedence" (Pilati, 1993 94, p. 11). In this survey, 88% of elementary
schools and 82% of middle schools labeled their peer mediation programs
successful, while only 34% of the high schools deemed their program
to be a success.
Key Elements
Although there are many important dimensions to consider when
developing and implementing a peer mediation program, three elements
appear to be vital to a good program: 1) good mediation training,
2) a mediation team that represents the student body, and 3) strong
staff support.
Mediation Training
Who trains the peer mediators? Most schools either ask an outside
organization, such as a community mediation center, to train the
students, or they use their own peer mediation staff coordinators.
The latter option requires that these staff members receive mediation
training first. In their guidelines for the development of school-based
mediation programs, NAME (1993) suggests that those who train the
students should be trained mediators and have experience in that
role. This means that staff coordinators need to gain mediation
experience. Consequently, pioneering school mediation programs used
community mediation professionals as their trainers for students.
More recently, however, most training in these programs has been
taken over by staff coordinators.
How much training do peer mediators need? NAME (1993) suggests
that elementary and middle school peer mediators receive 12-15 hours
of training and high school peer mediators receive 15-20 hours.
NAME suggests the following training session content:
Conflict: Discussion of what it is, different
styles of dealing with it, and the types of conflict that exist.
Communication styles: Non-verbal communication,
assertion messages, and "I" statements.
Active listening skills: Good/bad listening techniques,
open-ended questions, neutral language, etc.
Mediation process: Learning what it is, the steps
involved, confidentiality, etc.
On-going/follow-up training: Bias awareness, cultural
diversity, issues of power.
Finally, schools need to consider the issue of mediation training
for all faculty and staff. Some schools make this a requirement
for their programs. They do this to ensure commitment to the program
by the faculty, reasoning that if staff members understand the process
they are more likely to make referrals to the program. Although
there is no research suggesting that staff training is essential
to program success, many coordinators of programs that train faculty
and staff believe that it is quite helpful.
Who Mediates
Most school mediation programs use a cadre approach to mediation.
That is, not all students are chosen to become mediators but instead
a small team or cadre of mediators is developed from the student
body. There are a variety of ways in which mediators can be chosen:
a) the student body nominates their peers, b) the faculty and staff
nominate students, c) student volunteers are solicited, or d) some
combination of the first three approaches is used.
A vast majority of successful peer mediation programs make a
conscious effort to train a balanced, diverse group of mediators.
Their mediators represent the student body in terms of gender, race,
ethnicity and ability levels. The premise of peer mediation is that
a "peer" is helping to mediate the conflict. If the mediators are
all honor roll students, as one high school at first tried, students
are less likely to participate because they will not feel that it
is their "peers" who are performing the mediation. Many mediation
programs combine student nominations with adult insight to ensure
all constituencies are represented. Finally, because students trained
as mediators gain the most from the mediation experience, extending
the pool of mediators as broadly as possible seems ideal.
Importance of Staff Support
School mediation program coordinators have noted that faculty
and administrator support is vital for the program to be effective.
One mediation trainer says he does not even begin unless at least
75% of the school staff vote to have a peer mediation program, and
the rest agree not to sabotage the program (Conbere, 1994). Current
evidence suggests that effective peer mediation programs can be
very beneficial to staff because the programs can free them from
having to deal with so many disciplinary issues (Johnson, Johnson,
& Dudley, 1992). By supporting their school's peer mediation program,
staff will likely find themselves in a better classroom environment.
For example, researchers examining conflict behavior at one elementary
school reported that the number one way in which students responded
to conflict was to "tell the teacher" (Johnson, Johnson, & Dudley,
1992). After implementing a peer mediation program at this school
they found that conflicts referred to the teacher were reduced by
80% and the number of conflicts referred to the principal fell to
zero (Johnson, Johnson, & Dudley, 1992).
Other programs report similar results. Nearly half of the teachers
of a North Carolina school felt that they had more time to teach
instead of helping students solve interpersonal problems (CCDSP,
1985). A principal from an elementary program in Las Vegas noted
that "since we began the Mediator Program two years ago, the number
of discipline problems (both major and minor) referred to the principal's
office has declined considerably. The pro gram has also contributed
substantially to our schoolwide goal of increasing each student's
sense of responsibility" (Cahoon, 1988). Administrators from two
Milwaukee high schools echoed those comments, saying that they feel
that a new dimension of learning is taking place; that is, students
are taking responsibility for their behavior (Burrell & Vogl, 1990).
Hopefully results like these will encourage school staff skeptical
about the value of mediation to at least try a peer mediation program
within their own school.
Summary
Students today need to be taught that there are more effective
ways of managing interpersonal conflicts than aggression or withdrawal.
Peer mediation programs are an attempt to teach students a more
peaceful, problem solving approach to resolving interpersonal conflicts.
At the same time they teach students valuable skills in decision
making, perspective taking, and communication. Research on peer
mediation programs suggests that they can have a positive impact
on reducing the use of aggression in schools and can also free teachers
from the time consuming task of managing conflicts between students.
Finally, staff should be encouraged to support peer mediation programs
for those programs allow teachers to focus more on instruction and
less on classroom management.
References
Burrell, N. A. & Vogl, S. M. (1990). Turf-side conflict mediation
for students. Mediation Quarterly, 7, 237-250.
Cahoon, P. (1987-88). Teaching students to be mediators. Educational
Leadership, Dec./Jan, 93-94.
Chatham County Dispute Settlement Program (1985). Conflict
managers annual report. Unpublished manuscript, Pittsboro, NC.
Cheatham, A. (1988). Directory of school mediation and conflict
resolution programs. Amherst, MA: National Association of Mediation
in Education.
Conbere, J. (1994). Mediation in the schools and communities.
Paper presented at the 1994 Upper Midwest Summer Institute in School
Psychology.
Crary, D.R. (1992). Community benefits from mediation: A test
of the "peace virus" hypothesis. Mediation Quarterly, 9,
241-252.
Davis, A. M. (1986). Dispute resolution at an early age. Negotiation
Journal, July, 287-297.
Davis, H. (1983). The conflict Managers Program Implementation
and Training Manual. San Francisco: Community Board for Policy
and Training.
Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., & Dudley, B. (1992). Effects of
peer mediation training on elementary school students. Mediation
Quarterly, 10, 89-99.
Johnson, L. (1994). Peer mediation in Minneapolis public schools:
A study of implementation and perceived value. Unpublished Manuscript.
Lam, J. A. (1989). The impact of conflict resolution programs
on schools: A review and synthesis of the evidence. Amherst,
MA: NAME.
National Association for Mediation in Education. (1993). Beginning
Guidelines for the Development of the Field of Conflict Resolution
in Education: School-Based Mediation Programs. The Fourth R,
47, 8-10.
Pilati, D. A. (1993-94). An agenda for increasing the effectiveness
of peer mediation programs. The Fourth R, 48, 8-11.
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