"John pushed Perry down and so Perry kicked him."

"Sally and Juanita were spitting in each otherís faces and calling each other names."

"Tyler threaten to beat up Richard. Richard said if Tyler tried to do anything he would get even."

Considerable instructional, administrative, and learning efforts are lost because schools are filled with conflicts that students and faculty manage poorly. The frequency and severity of conflicts seems to be increasing, so that for the first time, the category "fighting, violence, and gangs" has been found to be tied for the number one position with "lack of discipline" for the largest problem confronting local public schools (Elam, Rose, & Harris, 1994).

Conflicts are not the problem, they are part of the solution. Schools should be orderly places in which conflicts are encouraged and managed constructively (i.e., schools should be conflict positive organizations) (Johnson & Johnson, 1995a). Conflicts should be an inevitable and pervasive part of school life. When they are managed constructively, conflicts can (a) increase achievement and long-term retention of academic material, (b) increase the use higher-level cognitive and moral reasoning, (c) increase healthy cognitive and social development, (d) focus attention on problems and increase the energy dedicated to solving them, (e) clarify own and othersí identity, commitments, and values, (f) clarify how you may need to change, (g) release anger, anxiety, insecurity, and sadness that, if kept inside, makes us mentally sick, (h) strengthen relationships by increasing your confidence that the two of you can resolve your disagreements and by keeping the relationship clear of irritations and resentments so that positive feelings can be experienced fully, and (i) be fun. In order to make schools orderly and peaceful places in which the positive outcomes of conflict can be realized and high quality education can take place, conflicts must be managed constructively. To do so, students must be taught the steps of being a peacemaker (Johnson & Johnson, 1995a, 1995b):

1. Create a cooperative context.

2. Teach students to understand (a) what is and is not a conflict and (b) that conflicts have many potentially valuable outcomes.

3. Teach students the problem-solving negotiation procedure.

4. Teach students how to mediate to mediate their schoolmatesí conflicts.

5. Implement the peer mediation program.

6. Teach follow-up lessons to refine and upgrade studentsí skills in using the negotiation and mediation procedures.

7. Each year repeat the above six steps from the first through twelfth grades.

If conflicts are to be managed constructively, they must occur in a cooperative, not a competitive context (in individualistic situations, people do not interact and, therefore, no conflict occurs). It makes little sense to attempt to teach students to manage conflicts constructively if the school is structured so that students are pitted against each other in competition for scarce rewards (like teacher attention and grades of "A") and students have to defeat each other to get what they want. In competition, rewards are restricted to the few who perform the best (Johnson & Johnson, 1989). Competitors tend to have a short-term time orientation, focus all their energies on winning, avoid communicating with each other, misperceive each other's position and motivations, be suspicious of each other, deny the legitimacy of others' needs and feelings, and see the situation only from their own perspective .

In order for conflicts to be resolved constructively, a cooperative environment must be established. In a cooperative context there are mutual goals that all participants are committed to achieving (Deutsch, 1973; Johnson & Johnson, 1989). Conflicts tend to be defined as mutual problems to be solved in ways that benefit everyone involved. Cooperators tend to have a long-term time orientation, focus their energies both on achieving goals and on maintaining good working relationships with others, communicate frequently and accurately with each other, perceive accurately other participants' positions and motivations, trust and like each other, respond helpfully to each other's wants and requests, recognize the legitimacy of each other's interests, and search for a solution accommodating the needs of both sides. When conflict resolution and peer mediation programs are implemented in the existing competitive/individualistic context of schools, their effectiveness can be severely compromised.

A cooperative context is most easily established by structuring the majority of learning situations cooperatively (Johnson & Johnson, 1989; Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1993). There are hundreds of studies indicating that cooperative learning, compared to competitive and individualistic learning, tends to promote greater effort to achieve (includes achievement, retention, higher-level reasoning, process gain, intrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, transfer), more positive relationships among students (includes liking among students who are heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity, gender, culture, and achievement as well as academic and personal social support), and greater psychological adjustment (includes psychological health, self-esteem, and social competence) (Johnson & Johnson, 1989). Since there is considerable benefit to using cooperative learning, creating a cooperative context to enhance the success of conflict resolution programs should be welcomed by most teachers. When conflict resolution and peer mediation programs are implemented in a cooperative context, their effectiveness tends to be enhanced.

Many students have a negativity bias in which they tend to see conflicts as involving anger, hostility, and violence. They tend to not recognize that conflicts can result in insight, learning, problem solving, and laughter. Students are taught (a) what is and is not a conflict, (b) the criteria for determining whether a conflict is resolved constructively, and (c) the value of conflict. Through participating in conflict simulations, students become more aware of how they act when involved in a conflict.

The heart of conflict resolution training is teaching students how to negotiate constructive resolutions to their conflicts. It is not enough to tell students to "be nice" or "talk it out," or "solve your problem." All students in all schools need to learn how to engage in problem-solving negotiations. There are two types of negotiations: distributive or "win-lose" (where one person benefits only if the opponent agrees to make a concession) and integrative or problem solving (where disputants work together to create an agreement that benefits everyone involved). In ongoing relationships only a problem solving approach to negotiations is constructive. The steps in using problem solving negotiations are (Johnson & Johnson, 1995a, 1995b):

1. Describing what you want. "I want to use the book now." This includes using good communication skills and defining the conflict as a small and specific mutual problem.

2. Describing how you feel. "I'm frustrated." Disputants must understand how they feel and communicate it openly and clearly.

3. Describing the reasons for your wants and feelings. "You have been using the book for the past hour. If I don't get to use the book soon my report will not be done on time. It's frustrating to have to wait so long." This includes expressing cooperative intentions, listening carefully, separating interests from positions, and differentiating before trying to integrate the two sets of interests.

4. Taking the otherís perspective and summarizing your understanding of what the other person wants, how the other person feels, and the reasons underlying both. "My understanding of you is..." This includes understanding the perspective of the opposing disputant and being able to see the problem from both perspectives simultaneously.

5. Inventing three optional plans to resolve the conflict that maximize joint benefits. "Plan A is..., Plan B is..., Plan C is..." This includes inventing creative options to solve the problem.

6. Choosing one and formalizing the agreement with a hand shake. "Letís agree on Plan B!" A wise agreement is fair to all disputants and is based on principles. It maximizes joint benefits and strengthens disputantsí ability to work together cooperatively and resolve conflicts constructively in the future. It specifies how each disputant should act in the future and how the agreement will be reviewed and renegotiated if it does not work.

Students need to practice this procedure over and over again until it becomes an automatic habit pattern..

All students are taught the procedures and skills they need to mediate their classmates' conflicts of interests (Johnson & Johnson, 1995a). A mediator is a neutral person who helps two or more people resolve their conflict, usually by negotiating an integrative agreement. Mediation is usually contrasted with arbitration. Arbitration is the submission of a dispute to a disinterested third party (such as a teacher or principal) who makes a final and binding judgment as to how the conflict will be resolved. Mediation consists of four steps (Johnson & Johnson, 1995a):

1. Ending hostilities: Break up hostile encounters and cool off students.

2. Ensuring disputants are committed to the mediation process: To ensure that disputants are committed to the mediation process and are ready to negotiate in good faith, the mediator introduces the process of mediation and sets the ground rules. The mediator first introduces him- or herself. The mediator asks students if they want to solve the problem and does not proceed until both answer "yes." Then the mediator explains:

a. "Mediation is voluntary. My role is to help you find a solution to your conflict that is acceptable to both of you."

b. "I am neutral. I will not take sides or attempt to decide who is right or wrong. I will help you decide how to solve the conflict."

c. "Each person will have the chance to state his or her view of the conflict without interruption."

d. "The rules you must agree to are (1) agree to solve the problem, (2) no name calling, (3) do not interrupt, (4) be as honest as you can, (5) if you agree to a solution, you must abide by it (you must do what you have agreed to do) and (6) anything said in mediation is confidential (you, the mediator, will not tell anyone what is said)."

3. Helping disputants successfully negotiate with each other: The disputants are carefully taken through the negotiation sequence of (a) jointly defining the conflict by both persons stating what they want and how they feel, (b) exchanging reasons, (c) reversing perspectives so that each person is able to present the other's position and feelings to the other's satisfaction, (d) inventing at least three options for mutual benefit, and (e) reaching a wise agreement and shaking hands.

4. Formalizing the agreement: The agreement is solidified into a contract. Disputants must agree to abide by their final decision and in many ways the mediator becomes "the keeper of the contract."

Once students understand how to negotiate and mediate, the teacher implements the peacemaker program. Each day the teacher selects two class members to serve as official mediators. Any conflicts students cannot resolve themselves are referred to the mediators. The mediators wear official T-shirts, patrol the playground and lunchroom, and are available to mediate any conflicts that occur in the classroom or school. The role of mediator is rotated so that all students in the class or school serve as mediators an equal amount of time. Initially, students mediate in pairs. This ensures that shy or nonverbal students get the same amount of experience as more extroverted and verbally fluent students. Mediating classmates' conflicts is perhaps the most effective way of teaching students the need for the skillful use of each step of the negotiation procedure.

If peer mediation fails, the teacher mediates the conflict. If teacher mediation fails, the teacher arbitrates by deciding who is right and who is wrong. If that fails, the principal mediates the conflict. If that fails, the principal arbitrates. Teaching all students negotiation and mediation procedures and skills and implementing a peer mediation program results in a schoolwide discipline program focused on empowering students to regulate and control their own and their classmates actions. Teachers and administrators are then freed to spend more of their energies on instruction.

At least twice a week additional lessons are needed to refine and upgrade students skills in using the negotiation and mediation procedures. Gaining real expertise in resolving conflicts constructively takes years and years and training and practice. A few hours of training is clearly not sufficient. or so students should be given further training or practice in negotiating and mediating. One of the most natural ways to integrate negotiation and mediation training into the fabric of school life is to integrate it into academic lessons. All literature, history, and science involves conflict. Almost any lesson in these subject areas can be modified to include role playing situations in which the negotiation and/or mediation procedures are used. In our recent research, for example, we have focused on integrating the peacemaker training into English literature units involving the studying of a novel. Each of the major conflicts in the novel was used to teach the negotiation and/or mediation procedures and all students participated in role playing how to use the procedures to resolve the conflicts in the novel constructively. With some training, it is not difficult for teachers to integrate the peacemaker program into academic units.

The Teaching Students to be Peacemakers Program is a 12-year spiral program that is retaught each year in a more sophisticated and complex way. It takes years and years to become competent in resolving conflicts. Any thought that a few hours of training is enough to train students in a high level of competence in managing their conflicts constructively is terribly misguided.

We began the Teaching Students to be Peacemakers Program in the 1960s. It originated from:

1. Our research on integrative negotiations (Johnson, 1967), perspective taking in conflict situations (Johnson, 1967, 1971a), conflict resolution in the school (Johnson, 1970, 1971b; Johnson, Johnson, & Johnson, 1976), communication in conflict situations (Johnson, 1974), and constructive conflict (Johnson, 1970; Johnson & Johnson, 1979).

2. Our development of social interdependence theory (Deutsch, 1949; Lewin, 1951; Johnson, 1970; Johnson & Johnson, 1989; Watson & Johnson, 1972).

3. Our training of thousands of elementary, secondary, and college students, faculty, and administrators in how to manage conflicts constructively (Johnson, 1970, 1972/1997, 1978/1991, 1983; Johnson & F. Johnson, 1975/1997; Johnson & R. Johnson, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c). We have established a network of school districts using the Peacemaker Program throughout North America, Europe, and several other countries in Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East, and Africa. Besides regular students, teachers, and administrators, we have taught delinquents, runaways, drug-abusers, and married couples in therapy how to manage their conflicts more constructively.

Through the interaction between theory, research, and practice our Peacemaker Program has grown and developed and field-tested in a wide variety of school districts, countries, and cultures.

We have conducted over twelve studies on the effectiveness of the Teaching Students to be Pea3cemakers Program (Johnson & Johnson, 1995e, 1997; Johnson, Johnson, & Stevahn, 1995). The studies focused on peer mediation programs in elementary, middle school, and high school settings. The programs were evaluated over a period of several months to a year. The schools were in urban and suburban school districts. Students varied from lower to upper middle class and were from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Mediators were drawn from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. The studies were carefully controlled field-experimental studies with high internal and external validity.

The findings of our research indicate that before training, students engage in conflicts daily and generally manage them through trying to win by (a) forcing the other to concede (either by overpowering the other disputant or by asking the teacher to force the other to give in) or (b) withdrawing from the conflict and the other person. One of the teachers, in her log, stated, "Before training, students viewed conflict as fights that always resulted in a winner and a loser. To avoid such an unpleasant situation, they usually placed the responsibility for resolving conflicts on me, the teacher." Students seem to lack all knowledge of how to engage in problem-solving, integrative negotiations.

After the peacemaker training, students knew the negotiation and mediation procedures, retained their knowledge throughout the school year, were able to apply the procedures to conflicts, transferred the procedures to nonclassroom and nonschool settings, used the procedures similarly in family and school settings, and (when given the option) engaged in problem-solving rather than win-lose negotiations. The number of discipline problems the teacher had to deal with decreased by about 60 percent and referrals to the principal dropped about 95 percent. The results further demonstrated that when the peacemaker training was integrated into academic units, not only did the students learn how to negotiate and mediate, they also achieved higher on tests of academic learning. Students developed more positive attitudes toward conflict and adults in the school and parents perceived the peacemaker program to be constructive and helpful. Many parents whose children were not part of the project requested that their children receive the training next year, and a number of parents requested that they receive the training so they could use the procedures to improve conflict management within the family.

Classroom and school discipline programs may be classified on a dimension from being based on external rewards and punishments that control and manage student behavior to being based on teaching students the competencies and skills required to resolve their interpersonal conflicts constructively, cope with stress and adversity, and behave in appropriate and constructive ways. At one end of the continuum the focus is on the faculty and staff controlling and managing student behavior. At the other end of the continuum the focus is on students regulating their own and their peers actions.

External Rewards/Punishments 1--2--3--4--5--6--7 Competencies For Self-Regulation

Most discipline programs are clustered at the adult administering external rewards and punishment end of the continuum. Thus, it is up to the faculty to monitor student behavior, determine whether it is or is not within the bounds of acceptability, and force students to terminate inappropriate actions. When the infractions are minor, the staff often arbitrate ("The pencil belongs to Mary, Jane be quiet and sit down.") or conjoule students to end hostilities ("Let's forgive and forget. Shake hands and be friends."). If that does not work, students may be sent to the principal's office for a stern but cursory lecture about the value of getting along, a threat that if the conflict continues more drastic action will ensue, and a final admonition to "Go and fight no more." If that does not work, time-out rooms may be used. Eventually, some students are suspended or expelled from school. Such programs teach students that adults or authority figures are needed to resolve conflicts. The programs cost a great deal in instructional and administrative time and work only as long as students are under surveillance. Students are not empowered. Adults may become more skillful in how to control students, but students do not learn the procedures, skills and attitudes required to resolve conflicts constructively in their personal lives at home, in school, at work, and in the community.

At the other end of the continuum are programs aimed at teaching students self-responsibility and self-regulation. Self-regulation is the ability to act in socially approved ways in the absence of external monitors. It is the ability to initiate and cease activities according to situational demands. Self-regulation is a central and significant hallmark of cognitive and social development. To regulate their behavior, students must monitor their own behavior, assess situations and take other people's perspectives to make judgments as to which behaviors are appropriate, and master the procedures and skills required to engage in the desired behavior. In interaction with other people, students have to monitor, modify, refine, and change how they behave in order to act appropriately and competently.

If students are to learn how to regulate their behavior they must have opportunities to (a) make decisions regarding how to behave and (b) follow through on the decisions made. Allowing students to be joint architects in matters affecting them promotes feelings of control and autonomy. Teachers and administrators can concentrate on instruction rather than control.

In addition to implementing the Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers Program, faculty may use intellectual, academic conflicts as an inherent part of the instructional program to increase student achievement, higher-level reasoning, motivation to learn, and conflict skills (Johnson & Johnson, 1995c). Academic controversy exists when one studentís ideas, information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are incompatible with those of another, and the two seek to reach an agreement. Structuring academic controversy into learning situations results in students learning that conflicts are potentially constructive and even enjoyable. The procedure for structuring academic controversies is to have students (a) prepare scholarly positions on an academic issue, (b) advocate them, (c) refute the opposing positions while rebutting criticisms of their position, (d) view the issue from both perspectives, and (e) come to a consensus about their "best reasoned judgment" based on a synthesis of the two positions. Over the past 25 years, we (with such colleagues as Dean Tjosvold and Karl Smith) have developed a theory of controversy, tested it by conducting over 20 experimental and field-experimental studies, developed a series of curriculum units on energy and environmental issues structured for academic controversies, and trained teachers to use academic controversies in schools and colleges throughout the United States, Canada, and a number of other countries (Johnson & Johnson, 1979, 1989, 1995c). The skills learned in controversy support and reinforce the skills used in negotiation and mediation.

A number of recent research studies have found that executives in high level positions spend much of their time dealing with conflicts, and the more skillful they are at doing so the more successful their careers. Because conflicts occur continually, and because so many people are so unskilled in managing conflicts, teaching students how to resolve conflicts constructively is one of the best investments schools can make. Once learned, conflict skills go with students to every situation and every relationship. Students do not have to manage every conflict constructively, but the ability to do so should be in their repertoire. Knowing how to resolve conflicts with skill and grace will give students "a developmental advantage" and increase their future academic and career sucess, improve the quality of relationships with friends, colleagues, and family, and generally enhance their life-long happiness.

The frequency of conflicts is not the problem facing schools. In many cases, schools are too conflict avoidant and need to increase the frequency with which conflicts occur among students and between students and faculty. Conflict has many positive outcomes that can never occur unless conflict is encouraged. The problem facing schools is not how to reduce the occurrence of conflicts, but rather how to increase the occurrence of conflicts while ensuring that they will be managed in constructive and healthy ways. The major barrier to doing so is studentsí lack of effective conflict resolution procedures. Students do have procedures for managing conflicts, but often the procedures are not constructive and not shared among all classmates. The multiple procedures for managing conflicts within classrooms create some chaos in how conflicts are managed. This is especially true when students are from different cultural, ethnic, social class, and language backgrounds. Life in schools gets easier when all students (and staff members) use the same set of negotiation and mediation procedures in managing conflicts.

When students are taught how to negotiate and are given opportunities to mediate their classmates conflicts, they are given procedures and competencies to (a) regulate their behavior through self-monitoring, (b) judge what is appropriate given the situation and the perspective of the other person, and (c) modify how they behave accordingly. Students then have the opportunity to resolve their dispute themselves, in mutually satisfactory ways, without having to engage the attention of a teacher. This empowers the students and reduces the demands on teachers and administrators, who can devote less time to establishing and maintaining control over students and more time on instruction.

Teaching all students negotiation and mediation procedures and skills and implementing a peer mediation program results in a schoolwide discipline program focused on empowering students to regulate and control their own and their classmates actions. When a conflict occurs, the students involved first try to negotiate a resolution. If that fails, a classmate mediates their conflict. If that fails, the teacher attempts to mediate the conflict. If that fails, the teacher arbitrates by deciding who is right and who is wrong. If that fails, the principal mediates the conflict. If that fails, the principal arbitrates.

Every student needs to learn how to manage conflicts constructively. Without training, many students may never learn how to do so. Teaching every student how to negotiate and mediate will ensure that future generations are prepared to manage conflicts constructively in career, family, community, national, and international settings. There is no reason to expect, however, that the process will be easy or quick. It took over 30 years to reduce smoking in America. It took over 20 years to reduce drunk driving. It may take even longer to ensure that children and adolescents can manage conflicts constructively. The more years students spend learning and practicing the negotiation and mediation procedures, the more likely they will be to actually use the procedures skillfully both in the classroom and beyond the school door.

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