David W. Johnson is professor of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota and codirector of the Cooperative Learning Center.
Effects of peer mediation training on elementary school students
Article first published online: 16 JAN 2007
Copyright © 1992 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company
Volume 10, Issue 1, pages 89–99, Autumn (Fall) 1992
How to Cite
Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T. and Dudley, B. (1992), Effects of peer mediation training on elementary school students. Mediation Quarterly, 10: 89–99. doi: 10.1002/crq.3900100108
- Issue published online: 16 JAN 2007
- Article first published online: 16 JAN 2007
A peer mediation training program was conducted in three classrooms in a midwestern, suburban, middle-class elementary school. Prior to the training program, frequent conflicts involving teasing, playground activities, academic work, and so on, were reported. Students seemed conditioned to look to the teacher for a solution to their conflicts because they did not have the procedures and interpersonal skills necessary to manage conflicts constructively. The training program was successful in dramatically reducing the number of conflicts referred to the teacher, teaching mediation procedures and skills, and generalizing the procedures and skills to use in students' lives outside of the classroom and school.