The students who attend the meetings are the students who are called on for that week to mediate. Formal mediation training begins with examination of the kinds of conflicts, their causes, and the various ways conflicts are handled. We then review the qualities of a good mediator. The introduction, listening, problem solving, choosing a solution, and agreement implementation plans. To understand the mediation process, students need to see it in action.
Students volunteer to role play as disputants and mediators.
The rest of the students act as observers and are asked to critique the mediators by responding to the positives they observed, such as what the mediators said was helpful, nonverbal messages given by the mediators, how the problems were defined and other ways the difficulties might have been handled. The disputants in the role play are asked to report their reactions to the mediation such as, did they feel listened to, and how the mediators encouraged problem solving. The remainder of the training is role playing and dealing with mediations that are difficult and learning how to use a caucus to enable the mediation to move forward. At Darka's request.