Conflict Resolution Education - National Criminal Justice Reference ...

Teaching Students To Be
Peacemakers Program
The Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers (TSP)
program offered by the Cooperative Learning Center
of the University of Minnesota is a 12-year spiral
program for schools in which students learn increasingly
sophisticated negotiation and mediation procedures
each year. 6 In the TSP program, the school’s
faculty create a cooperative environment, teach students
to be peacemakers, implement the peacemaker
program, and refine and upgrade the students’ skills.
Faculty Create a Cooperative Environment
Cooperative learning creates a context for the constructive
resolution of conflicts. It also reduces the
factors that place students at risk for using violence,
such as poor academic performance (with an inability
to think decisions through) and alienation from
schoolmates. Cooperative learning, compared with
competitive or individualistic learning, results in
higher academic achievement and increased use of
higher level reasoning strategies, more caring and
supportive relationships, and greater self-esteem.
Faculty Teach Students To Be
Peacemakers
Under TSP, all students receive 30 minutes of training
per day for approximately 30 days and then 30
minutes of training approximately twice a week for
the rest of the school year. The training includes:
♦ Understanding the Nature of Conflict. Learning
includes recognizing conflicts by focusing attention
on problems, clarifying disputants’ values,
revealing how disputants need to change, increasing
higher level cognitive and moral reasoning,
increasing motivation to learn, providing insights
into other perspectives and life experiences,
strengthening relationships, adding fun and
variety to life, and increasing disputants’ ability
to cope with stress and be resilient in the face
of adversity.
♦ Choosing an Appropriate Conflict Strategy.
Students, faculty, and administrators learn that
they have two concerns when facing a conflict:
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achieving their goals and maintaining a good
relationship with the other person. The balance
between the two determines whether they should:
Withdraw, giving up both the goals and the
relationship.
Force, achieving the goal at the other person’s
expense, thereby giving up the relationship.
Smooth, giving up the goal to enhance the
relationship.
Compromise, giving up part of the goal at
some damage to the relationship.
Negotiate, solving the problem, thus achieving
the goal and maintaining the relationship.
Participants are taught that in long-term
relationships, such as those with schoolmates
and faculty, the most important strategy is the
problem-solving process of negotiation.
♦ Negotiating To Solve the Problem. It is not
enough to tell students to “be nice,” or “talk it
out,” or “solve your problem.” They must be
taught specific procedures for resolving conflicts.
This part of the training teaches students, faculty,
and administrators specific procedures for negotiating
agreements that result in all disputants
achieving their goals while maintaining or even
improving the quality of their relationships (see
figure 4).
♦ Mediating Others’ Conflicts. Participants are
taught the four-step mediation procedure:
Ending hostilities. The mediator ensures that
disputants end hostilities and cool off. If the
disputants are too angry to solve their problems,
they must cool down before mediation
begins.
Ensuring disputants are committed to the
mediation process. The mediator introduces
the process of mediation and sets the ground
rules.
Helping disputants successfully negotiate
with each other. The mediator carefully
takes the disputants through the negotiation
procedure.