Good Practice – Train the Trainer Mediation Program – EU

This program, which is set up by the European Institute for Conflict Resolution, trains teachers to both mediate conflicts as well as to set up mediation training programs themselves. The program consists of a 2-part 3-day course. By empowering teachers to guide their students through a 6-stage mediation process the educators are also empowering students to become mediators themselves.

The opportunity to give students the ability to settle classroom conflicts on their own offers multiple potential benefits. For instance, teachers and other school staff spend less time mediating conflicts among students – and are therefore able to spend more of that time teaching. Increased self-esteem among students, achieved through empowerment to solve their own conflicts, may result in increased positive mood and communication in the classroom. This initiative has been tried out in London in the UK and it has also been replicated in Athens and in Thessaloniki, in Greece.