A Curriculum in Mediation

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Peer Mediator Training Workshop Presenter Notes - view page 11
11 Open Questions Worksheet
Need MITs with workbooks - individual activity within quads & whole class discussion

PLEASE NOTE: The information below supplements the specific flow and process directions of the Student Workbook pages and is reflective of the theory and practice delineated in the 12 page pdf Conflict Management booklet. Therefore, this "teacher's guide" information, the Student Workbook information and the Conflict Management booklet work together for presenters' preparation and should be considered integral to one other. No document stands on its own from a presenter's preparation viewpoint. Use the view page ___ link above, page by page, to view related Student Workbook pages. Download the 12 page pdf Conflict Management booklet to your desktop, read it once, and have it ready as reference as you proceed with preparation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Open Questions Worksheet <11mit.pdf> (212 KB) [11 OQW] view. Theory is deadly! After some explanatory information, we present an example of a closed and open question with a presenter role play. One presenter is a TV talk show host and the other is his/her guest. The "host" asks a closed end question to which the "guest" answers, "Yup" or "Nope." We go on to state that we need to have better questions if we want to learn more. The eight questions below our example are intentionally designed to create a success experience for MITs. So, when there is little or no space below an example, there is little or no need for correction! Presenter information: questions 2, 4, 6, 8 need lots of work! An important point that often comes up is that sometimes, a SERIES (in bold print on the page directions) OF QUESTIONS may be needed depending upon the answer to the initial question. In your follow-up discussion of this exercise, presenters may want to look at the characteristics of questions 1, 3, 5, 7 to examine open nature of their construction. However, even they could be answered in a closed fashion by a very defensive disputant necessitating the "series of questions" strategy.

We return to the sharpening of questioning skills with an emphasis on Open style questions. Refer back to the idea that the mediators are like TV talk show hosts who are trying to entertain a TV/radio audience and that they want their guests to make the show informative with their comprehensive answers to the host's questions. This worksheet is deliberately (and compassionately) designed to lead MITs to select the correct questions on which to work--there is little or no space to work beneath the correct forms of questions; none is needed for the reasonably correctly crafted open style (1, 3, 5, 7) questions. They certainly may be improved upon if you have some extra time. Questions 2, 4, 6, 8 need lots of work by the MITs to change from a yes-no answerable question to questions that require a more informative response that does not result in a dead end. Consequently, there is more space in which to work. The instructions at the top are a bit silly on purpose as we are working hard to keep the MITs interest going through this sometimes tedious section of training and theory. Really ham up the TV host thing, if you must, to keep the MITs awake.

All questions should be non-judgmental! This is very difficult as any question presupposes something by the very fact that we are even asking the question. Questions need to be without blame in form or content. No accusations--apparent or implied, please. A classic form of this attack style question might be, "Have you stopped kicking your friend?" This is an easy one to give as an example and then ask, "What's wrong with this question? All questions need to be neutral in spirit and allow for various paths of response. As we mentioned above, the model of a compassionate journalistic talk show host interested in getting the whole story from his/her invited guest is a major theme of this section. We sneak in the "no judgment" spirit here for this task, but the spirit should be applied throughout our mediation.

"Never, never, never offer solutions or your ideas! It’s their problem!" reminders are printed on the student workbook pages in a number of places to help us to re-focus MITs away from fixing problems to becoming facilitators for disputants to find their own solutions.

End with an invitation for questions. "Can everyone readily see the difference between an open question and a closed question?" is a good starter. Ask, "How many were able to use active listening type probes for their answers?" Anybody able to create an "I" statement? As mentioned earlier, the styles overlap significantly when we work holistically. We really want the MITs to be determined to get the whole or complete story during mediations. If we don't "look" at all the stuff, (feelings and facts) it will never get resolved. This is a way leading to that goal.

Repeated information from our active listening lesson applies here, also.
"We once again, work to "lance the boil" in this questioning strategy. The direction of questioning which includes the words, " . . .you feel?" keeps the focus on feelings and on the disputants. In all that follows, we keep the focus on the two people before us and their dispute and not stray off toward judging or assuming information about third parties. There is such temptation to avoid the issues of hard feelings. Keep the dispute with the disputants, also. Do not offer solutions or advice. Wear your Teflon reflector suit at all times. Gently and persistently return the issues back to disputants that they may grapple with them under your caring control. Never, in any manner, attack disputants with your questions. Act as if you are totally ignorant of the situation and you need them to tell you about it. This helps to preserve your necessary neutrality. Remember, that what you are hearing is what the other disputant is also hearing. You help them to communicate with each other through you."

Throw this question in. "Do you think disputants could get listened to on campus, the way we are learning to listen, while surrounded by 200 students looking to see a fight?" Answer: That's why they need mediators like YOU! to work so hard and so long on the mediation stuff today--our unabashed pep talk here.

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