By enabling students to mediate their own disputes, educators may be synthesizing the finest potential in the school--the creative, constructive dynamic inherent in conflict. This article describes a mediated dispute resolution program used in several schools and offers implementation advice. (MLH)

Mediation and conflict resolution have numerous school applications. School mediation programs create new forms for social interaction in which fighting and violence are unacceptable methods of resolving differences. The New Mexico Center for Dispute Resolution has successfully applied mediation techniques to gang disputes, parent-child impasses,…

Although violence prevention programs can be helpful, they are frequently poorly targeted and unrealistic about the social forces driving student behavior. Conflict-resolution training is effective when it occurs within a cooperative context, teaches students when a conflict is or isn't occurring, stresses concrete negotiation and mediation…