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Peer Mediation in Middle Schools
Is there any doubt this program won’t
work?
- There are a lot of new violence prevention techniques. It is
important for educators to know that not all programs actually meet
the outcomes they promise.
- Peer mediation is a new technique and its efficacy has not yet
been proven. Middle schools should provide a safe and healthy
environment, and peer mediation should help reduce situational and
interpersonal violence. If the program does not work or it is not
put in place correctly the program goals will not be meant. It is
important to be sure the program works. All middle schools should
want to create a caring and intellectual climate and peer mediation
should help this process not hurt it. It should help increase
teacher/student and student/student relationships which is very
important to students 10-14 years old.
QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK BEFORE IMPLEMENTING NEW VIOLENCE PREVENTION
PROGRAM
(http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedletter/v08n2/safe.html)
- Did the evaluator have sufficient expertise in the subject area?
An expert on peer mediation techniques, for instance, might not be a
suitable reviewer of a program that teaches bias identification.
- Were the tests actually conducted in a school or in a test
environment that simulated a school?
- If the program was tested in a school, what was the school like?
Were conditions comparable to those in the administrator's own
school? Program outcomes at a sub-urban school may be very different
from those at a rural school or those at an inner city school.
- Who presented the program? The choice of trainers and their
knowledge of program materials can affect program outcomes
dramatically. "The same program targeting similar audiences may
have an entirely different outcome when presented by different
implementers."
Peer mediators receive a lot of training on how to handle problems
and some mediators say it isn’t enough because each situation is
unique and things can get complicated. If the problem is a personal
attack sometimes emotions run high and the mediator can not control the
situation.
It is important that all students take part in the training and are
supervised closely at the beginning. It is also important for mediators
to continue to meet and talk about problems that arise, how they handled
the problems, and how the problems could have been handled more
effectively. This is a good way to learn from each other’s mistakes.
The formality of the program is very important. It is what makes the
program unique and worthwhile.
- Mediators should come from a cross section of the schools. They
should represent the student body as a whole in gender, ethnicity,
and intelligence level.
The selection process is very important to the program. Students must
want to participate but must also be able to take the responsibility of
being there. Students need to also represent the entire school or else
some students may not feel comfortable using a mediator.
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