The research on the opinions of conflicting and mediator students about peer mediation program

In this research, the opinions of conflicting and mediator students about ?Peer Mediation? program are examined. The main goals of this research are to evaluate the opininons of the conflicting and mediator students regarding the process of ?Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation? model, which has been implemented in one high school for five years, as well as to examine the effectiveness of the model from the perspective of the conflicting and mediator students.This research was conducted in 2010-2011 academic year at one high school in İzmir approved by Ministry of Education in where ?Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediaiton? model is implemented. This research was structured with qualitative research approach. The independent variable of the research has indicated as ?Peer Mediation Meetings?, whereas the dependent varible has taken as the perceptions of conflicting and mediator students about mediation meetings.On the basis of snowball sampling, the working group of this study includes 20 mediators and 20 conflicting students which constitute totally 40 students and 10 teachers from one high school in Izmir approved by Ministry of Education in 2010-2011 academic year. Semi-structured interview questionary form prepared by the researcher was applied to people in the working group. Verbal data obtained from the research was analyzed with the content analysis method. According to obtained data, application of conflict resolution and peer mediation in their schools has assisted students to solve their conflicts with the mediation which is constructive and peaceful way. According to the result of this study, conflicting and mediator students found the empathy step as the most difficult level, however after they overcame the difficulty of this step, they could reach an agreement and their relations with friends with whom they had conflict became as before, even the relations of some students became better than their previous relations. In contrast with this result; even though their number is limited, some mediator and conflicting students said that their friend relationships have deteriorated after mediation meetings. In addition to this, the results of interviews show that both conflicting and mediator students have used their negotiation experiences, which they learned at school, in their out-of-school relations.The views of teachers in the reseach data indicate that the students have chosen peer mediaton model as a way of conflict resolution; application of this programme increased the students? attention to the lessons, made the classroom management easier for the teachers and reduced the disciplinary punishment of the students.