Direct Instruction and Guided Practice Matter in Conflict Resolution and Social‐Emotional Learning

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21156
• Author: Karen DeVoogd,Pamela Lane‐Garon,Charles A. Kralowec
• Published date: 01 March 2016
• Date: 01 March 2016

C R Q, vol. 33, no. 3, Spring 2016 279

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the Association for Confl ict Resolution

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/crq.21156

Direct Instruction and Guided Practice Matter in

Con ict Resolution and Social-Emotional Learning

Karen DeVoogd

Pamela Lane-Garon

Charles A. Kralowec

Seven schools in an economically challenged area of an urban school

district in central California implemented mentored peer media-

tion programs under the guidance of a university–K-12 partnership

project, Mediator Mentors. Individual student outcomes for social-

cognitive dispositions, perceptions of school climate, confl ict strategy

choices, and standardized testing results in language arts were ana-

lyzed on the basis of assessments administered after one year of program

implementation and compared to pretest values generated by student

mediators and nonmediators. Attendance and student perceptions of

school safety were also examined after a year of peer mediation at the

schools. Overall school climate was analyzed with respect to bullying

incidence and suspension and expulsion rates before and after one year

of program implementation.

Mediation is often described by those new to the fi eld as a win-win

process, with a focus on disputants who design their mutually sat-

isfactory confl ict resolution. While this is a valid perspective, our research

confi rms that there are additional and perhaps larger “wins” for students

who are facilitating the mediation and for the school community as a

whole.  is outcome perspective is often met with some skepticism when

the school community is situated in a neighborhood characterized by high

rates of crime, poverty, and low levels of literacy. All seven of the schools

in this study can be described in this manner. Our study of mentored

peer mediation programs in the San Joaquin Valley was supported by  e

California Endowment, Building Healthy Communities grant in 2013.

280 DEVOOGD, LANEGARON, KRALOWEC

C R Q • DOI: 10.1002/crq

As in the studies of peer mediation in the 1980s and 1990s, positive

outcomes of this inquiry also justify program implementation. However,

what may distinguish the contribution of this study to the existing knowl-

edge base are (1) the social-emotional variables selected for measurement;

(2) the considerable number of participants across schools in economically

challenged neighborhoods; (3) the tie to academic achievement, specifi -

cally language arts for English language learners; and (4) the unique men-

toring aspect of the mediation model.

Background and Literature Review

Confl ict resolution education (CRE) programs come in all shapes and sizes

(Jones 2004). Peer mediation is one.  e program that served as “treat-

ment” in our study features university students (future helping profes-

sionals) adopting a school and participating in assessment, training, and

ongoing relationship building. Each of our seven schools had a univer-

sity student mediator mentor who collaborated with classroom teachers,

school administrators, and university professors.  e mediators were on

their school campus to advertise the upcoming program rollout by dis-

tributing applications to any interested child in grades 4 to 8 (reducing

selection bias).

During the teacher training and the two days of student training, the

mediator mentors were present and learning with their mentees while help-

ing professors and teacher trainers facilitate the exercise.  ese desirable

role models were in on the peer mediation team development from the

start and therefore often became the go-to adults for most of the younger

student mediators. Although peer mediation programs have been docu-

mented and evaluated for decades in hundreds of studies (Durlak et al.

2011; Johnson and Johnson 1999; Jones 2004), we submit that the ongo-

ing program development provided by mentoring is powerful.

Perhaps the CRE program most similar to ours is Bickmore’s (2002)

Winning Against Violent Environments (WAVE). Developed by Carole

Close and institutionalized in the Cleveland Municipal School District,

twenty-eight urban elementary schools were evaluated. WAVE high school

mediators trained twenty-fi ve to thirty elementary mediators in each school,

conducted follow-up visits with schools, presented at school staff meetings,

and led workshops for parent groups. Data were collected to determine the

impact on understanding of confl ict, attitudes toward confl ict, perceptions

of school climate, attendance rate, number of suspensions, and academic