This document provides an overview of a peer mediation curriculum developed by the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center (APADRC) to help schools establish peer mediation programs. The curriculum includes implementation guides, trainer manuals, student workbooks, forms and other materials. It is designed to train middle school students in conflict resolution and mediation skills to help resolve disputes among their peers. The goal is to make it possible for any school to start a low-cost peer mediation program to reduce conflict and suspensions.

1. Peer Mediators: A Complete School
Curriculum (Grades 6-8)
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN
DISPUTE RESOLUTION CENTER
(APADRC)

2. Executive Director
Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center
1145 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90017
Email:
charles.chang@apadrc.org
Work phone:
(213)250-8190
Websites:
apadrc.org, peermediators.org,
apadrc-divorce-mediation.org

3. What‘s In this Presentation

An overview of a peer mediation
program and how it works

Description of the positive impact a peer
mediation program can have in the schools

Description of the new curriculum designed
by APADRC and how it will make it easier for
schools to start a peer mediation program

4. Collaborators on Peer Mediators
Curriculum Development Team
•
Charles Chang, Asian Pacific American
Dispute Resolution Center
•
Wendy E.H. Corbett, Advancing Dispute
Resolution
•
Justin Corbett, Advancing Dispute Resolution
(Was with National Association for Community
Mediation during the time the curriculum was
developed)
•
Darlene Mortel, Asian Pacific American
Dispute Resolution Center

5. Contributing Peer Mediation Program
Curriculums and Materials:
Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center, Los Angeles, CA
Community Mediation, Inc., Hamden, CT
Eagles Mediation & Counseling Centre, Liang Court, Singapore
Inafa’ Maolek Conciliation, Guam
National Association for Community Mediation, Mesa, AZ
San Francisco Community Boards, San Francisco, CA
Solve-It! Community Mediation Service, Mesa AZ

6. Curriculum Reviewers:
Joe Brummer, Community Mediation, Inc., Hamden, CT
Anya McDavitt, North Shore Community Mediation Center,
Beverly, MA
Steffanie Medina, Creative Mediation, San Luis Obispo, CA
Angela Mitakidis, Eagles Mediation & Counseling Centre,
Liang Court, Singapore
Darlene Mortel, Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution
Center, Los Angeles, CA

7. What Is Peer Mediation
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Peer Mediation is a way to handle student
conflicts and disciplinary problems
Peer Mediation allows students the opportunity
to talk out their differences in order to resolve
their conflicts
If a teacher/administrator doles out punishment
like a suspension, the conflict will still be there
after the students get back because they
haven’t resolved their issues.
Trained students serve as mediators so adults
are not involved in dealing with the conflict
other than to refer students to peer mediation

8. What Impact Does Peer
Mediation Have In The Schools
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Can reduce suspension rates by 25% or more
•
Can handle bullying issues
•
Creates a better environment for studying and
teaching
•
Creates leadership opportunities for students
who were getting in trouble and and getting
into conflicts with other students

9. How Does Peer Mediation Work
•
Students of diverse backgrounds are trained to
be peer mediators (about 30 per school)
•
When someone sees students having a
conflict, they fill out a referral form listing the
students and the type of conflict if they know it
•
Anyone can refer – administrators, teachers,
other students, and themselves

10. How Does Peer Mediation Work (Con’t)
•
The coordinator takes the information in the
referral form and calls out two student
mediators during class time, and those two
peer mediators call out the disputing students
and they go to a room for mediation
•
The peer mediators handle all aspects of the
mediation including the opening statement
and filling out the agreement at the end
•
The adult coordinator oversees the mediation
and gives feedback to the peer mediators
after the mediation so the students can
continue to develop their mediation skills

11. aka Peer Mediation Start-Up Kit
(PM Kit)

12. Contents of PM Kit
•
Implementation Guide
•
Trainers Manual
•
Student Workbook
•
DVD
•
CD
•
Online Conflict Resolution Class

13. Implementation Guide
•
The Implementation Guide gives an overall
strategy for building and running a peer
mediation program

14. Implementation Guide - Getting Started
•
Conducting a school conflict resolution
needs assessment
•
Assembling a Program Team
•
Garnering support from faculty /
administration
•
Identifying and Securing Funding
Sources

15. Implementation Guide - Getting Started
School Conflict Resolution Center Needs Assessment
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Goal is to determine what conflicts exist within
the school that can be helped with a peer
mediation program
Another goal is to determine among what
groups the conflict exists (teacher/student,
student/student, school policies, groups within
the school)
Determine what kinds of procedures are in
place currently to deal with conflicts and if they
are helpful
What staff members have training in conflict
resolution

16. Implementation Guide - Getting Started
Assembling a Program Team
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At least one adult (teacher, dean, outside
nonprofit staff, parent) must be willing to take
on the role of Program Coordinator
The Program Coordinator works with school
administration, teachers, parents, and students
to build and sustain the peer mediation
program
The more people that are part of the Program
Team, the more likely that the peer mediation
program will succeed

17. Implementation Guide - Getting Started
Assembling a Program Team
•
•
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If there is no funding for the peer mediation
program, it can still be implemented if a
teacher or dean is willing to allocate their time
to maintaining the program
A parent can also become the Program
Coordinator and start and run the peer
mediation program
If several teachers agree to be on the Program
Team, each teacher can take responsibility for
supervising the peer mediation program for
one period

18. Implementation Guide - Getting Started
Assembling a Program Team
•
An Advisory Committee can support the
Program Coordinator and peer mediation
program
•
The Advisory Committee can provide
administrative support for the program like
finding resources and getting support within the
school

19. Implementation Guide - Getting Started
Assembling a Program Team
Garnering Support from Faculty/Administration
•
Because a majority of the referrals to peer
mediation are made by Faculty/Administration,
it’s crucial that faculty and administration
understand the value of mediation and how
the program will fit in with their daily routine.
•
It’s important to have a “pitch” that you can
use to explain how the program works, how it
will address school conflicts, and what kind of
overall impact it will have on the school

20. Implementation Guide
Building a Program Strategy
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Develop a Program Implementation Timeline
Adapt/Supplement School Disciplinary Policies
Define the types of cases that will be mediated
Design a case referral system
Develop an intake / Pre-screening Procedure
Develop Program Forms and a System of Case
Processing
Develop Guidelines for scheduling mediations
Develop Procedures for mediation session
preparation

21. Implementation Guide
Building a Program Strategy (Cont’d)
•
Designing a school-wide promotional
campaign
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Defining peer mediator training requirements
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Recruiting/Selecting peer mediators

22. Implementation Guide Training Students
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The most complex part of the peer mediation
program is training the peer mediators
•
The training teaches students the conflict
resolution theory and mediation skills they will
need to mediate conflicts

23. Implementation Guide Training Students
Other components of the peer mediation program like
setting up the referral system or promoting the program
doesn’t necessarily take any skill or knowledge, but a
trainer who has knowledge of conflict resolution theory
and mediation skills will find it easier to train the students,
although the PM Kit curriculum is designed to allow
anyone to do the training if they read the materials.
The majority of the training is activity-based with debriefs
about the activities so someone with good facilitation skills
can do the training without prior experience in peer
mediation

24. Trainer’s Manual
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Trainer’s Overview
12 Modules
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First 3 modules – Introduce students to each
other, to conflict, and to peer mediation
Modules 4 to 12 are focused on very specific skillsets within peer mediation
Total of over 100 training activities developed to
support training the students
Student handouts are also included to make
using the activities easy for the trainer
When doing the training, the trainer can follow
what’s in the student workbook or switch out
some activities in the Student Workbook with
what’s in the Trainer’s Manual

25. Trainer’s Manual
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The Trainer’s Manual is filled with hundreds of
hours of conflict resolution activities which can
be used for an entire conflict resolution/peer
mediation class
Although the activities are geared toward
students, the theory and knowledge are the
same that adults learn in an adult mediation
training
Contains activities to develop and promote the
program
Contains sample role-plays for practicing
mediation

26. Student Workbook
•
Contains 12 modules – each module has
several activities that teach about conflict
resolution and mediation
•
The trainer can give each student a workbook
and the trainer will select which activities to use
for the training
•
Program Forms are also included so students
can use the proper forms during mediation

27. Student Workbook
Sample Forms
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Peer Mediation Session Checklist
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Agreement to Mediate
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Peer Mediation Notes Form
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Session Brainstorming Worksheet
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Peer Mediation Agreement Form
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Peer Mediation Evaluation Form (by
participants)
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Peer Mediation Evaluation Form (by peer
mediators)
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Case Log

28. Online Conflict Resolution Class
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25 hour training for teachers and nonprofit staff
that want to learn the knowledge that is being
taught to students in the peer mediation
training
3/4 of the training is self-directed online with
quizzes on each module
1/4 of the training is a live class that anyone
can attend by logging on the course platform
Because it is all online, anyone from anyplace
in the world can take this online class
The hard copy of the PM Kit and the online
class have a fee, but everything else is free

29. Our Vision
The vision of the Peer Mediation Start-Up Kit
was to make it possible for every school in
the country to be able to start their own
peer mediation program even if they had
no financial resources to put toward the
program

30. •
From peermediators.org, you can do the
following:
•
Order hard copies of the PM Kit which
includes the 3 manuals, the DVD, CD with
electronic versions of the manuals
•
Stream scenes from the DVD
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View locations where the curriculum is
currently being implemented
•
Get future updates on the curriculum,
including an upcoming book of conflict
resolution games that will be coming out
toward the end of 2014