Frequently asked questions
What does the student do in mediation?
What is mediation based on?
On this page we answer frequently asked questions about mediation in schools, colleges and day-care centres. If you can't find the information you're looking for, you can always contact us!
MiniVerso on menetelmänä osa varhaiskasvatuksen sovittelutoimintaa. Sovittelukoulutuksen saanut henkilökunnan jäsen auttaa lapsia itse löytämään ratkaisuja ristiriitoihinsa. MiniVerso mahdollistaa lasten aidon osallisuuden sovittelutilanteissa. Lasta ei leimata vaan kunnioitetaan ja kuunnellaan oman riitansa ja sen ratkaisun asiantuntijana.
Peer mediation or Verso ja aikuisjohtoinen sovittelu ovat menetelminä osa koulujen sovittelutoimintaa ja koulun konfliktin käsittelyn käytäntöjä. Vertaissovittelussa koulutetut Verso-oppilaat toimivat itseään nuorempien oppilaiden välisten konfliktien sovittelijoina. Oppilaat saavat kertoa oman näkemyksensä, kuvata tuntemuksiaan ja pohtia eri ratkaisuvaihtoehtoja. Sovittelun lopuksi tehdään osapuolia koskeva sopimus, jota seurataan. Sovittelutoimintaa ohjaa aina henkilökunnan jäsenistä koulutettu Verso-aikuisten tiimi. Koulun sovittelutoiminta ei vähennä kodin ja koulun yhteistyötä.
Mediation is used to settle everyday conflicts, including name-calling, name-calling, nasty comments in person, behind your back or on social media, pushing, shoving, bullying, discrimination by not being included in a game or group activity, trespassing or hiding someone else's property, disputes over the rules of games and play.
You can make up with children of all ages, including children under 3. With young children, the focus is on strengthening and practising emotional skills. With the support of the educator, different emotions are observed, identified and named.
With children in need of support, mediation is practised, taking into account the child's individual needs and making use of a variety of practices already in use in everyday life. The trained educator understands the needs of the child and the principles of mediation, which enable him or her to illustrate mediation. Mediation can be played out through drama with children, e.g. in situations where children have disputes. Learning is always an individual process that takes time, patience and repetition on the part of the educator.
Mediation is voluntary. The most common reason for not wanting to mediate is either that the child is not familiar with mediation or has experiences of guilt and punishment. Each situation will always be dealt with in an appropriate way.
If in early childhood education and care the dispute is not mediated according to the process, it will be dealt with in that situation by other means in accordance with the early childhood education and care plan.
Peer review an adult guides the students to the mediation, where the mediators explain the rules of mediation and then the parties are asked if they want to stay in mediation. Only if both parties volunteer to stay can the actual mediation begin. If one or both parties refuse peer mediation, the mediation trainees refer the parties to Verso adults who will assess how to proceed with the situation.
Even an unresolved mediation situation is not wasted, as in these situations the parties have the opportunity to learn how to resolve the situation positively through discussion.
If in early childhood education and care mediation does not lead to a result, the educator will help and manage the situation as empathetically as possible, listening to the needs of the children and following the principles of the early childhood education and care plan.
Peer review can sometimes end up with just agreeing on a new mediation situation in which the discussion continues. Peer review if necessary, the case is referred to further processing by the Verso Adult Team, such as adult-led mediation or other procedures in place at the school. The ultimate responsibility for choosing the method of resolution lies with the adults in the school, who will always assess on a case-by-case basis which situations should be referred to peer mediation and which require other school procedures. However, follow-up surveys show that around 90% of cases referred to mediation result in an agreement that is found to have been upheld.
Mediation allows the parties to meet each other. The essence of mediation is dialogue, learning and understanding the other person's perspective. In mediation, the parties are present. They have the right to share what happened through their own views and feelings and to consider different solutions. In order to exercise these rights in early childhood education and carethe educator supports the child throughout the mediation process.
If only one party is present, the encounter at the heart of the mediation process does not take place, so it is not really mediation. In schools and educational institutions, many disorderly behaviour, such as tardiness and vandalism, are situations where a conciliatory approach can be used to find a lasting solution. In such situations, the pupil may be punished for his or her offence under the rules of conduct, and the discussion will focus on how to avoid a repetition of the incident.
The starting point for mediation is that the parties are heard and treated equally.
Early childhood education and care the educator uses questions used in mediation to verbalise events and feelings. Mediation helps to find a solution to a dispute between a child and an adult.
In primary and secondary schools teachers and pupils have different roles, rights and responsibilities at school, making it difficult to put them on an equal footing. Therefore, a conflict between teacher and pupil cannot be reconciled in peer mediation, where pupils act as mediators. Instead, good experience has been gained with an arrangement where a pair of student mediators and a Verso adult act as mediators.
Mediation does not replace other methods of intervention, but it provides a good tool for implementing child-friendly and early attention and handling of different levels of conflict.
MiniVerso mediation method is one way of achieving the goal of physical, mental and social safety set out in the early childhood education and care plan.
Peer mediation is not a substitute for any activity available in the school. Peer mediation is one more tool in the school's intervention toolbox. Peer mediation provides an alternative way of resolving conflicts and brings ways to prevent problems or their escalation. The basic idea in schools that have introduced mediation is to first give pupils themselves the opportunity to sort out the situation, learn positive ways of resolving it, come to terms with their own conflict and take responsibility for changing their behaviour.
Peer mediation aims to intervene at an early stage in everyday conflicts and thus prevent more serious situations from arising. However, peer mediation does not exclude other forms of intervention, such as educational dialogue, if this is deemed necessary. In educational discussions, it is also useful for adults to use conciliatory language, to confront the pupil in a participative way and to talk together.
Students are often able to express their feelings more easily with each other, as peers speak the same language and correctly interpret non-verbal communication. Trained Verso students help students in conflict to find a solution to the situation themselves. Peer mediation involves agreeing to change behaviour without blame or punishment, so that no one is stigmatised and there is no need for retaliation between the parties. Every student has the right to be themselves, the right to be part of a community and the right to learn. Through mediation, students learn problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, understanding of differences, intercultural understanding and peace-building.
The Basic Education Curriculum Criteria (OPH/2014) in Chapter 3.3. under Participation, Empowerment and Building a Sustainable Future (p. 23) states: ”They (the students) learn to work together and get a chance to practice negotiating, mediation and conflict resolution and critical reflection.”
The adults in the school will select the students to be trained as peer mediators. Usually, around 20 peer mediators are trained for the school. Schools have had a variety of practices for selection; for example, there has been an opportunity to apply for training, or a vote in class to nominate a classmate to be a mediator, etc. However, the final choice is always made by a team of adults who ensure that new peer mediators are trained when the old ones leave the school. The first group of peer mediators is always trained by expert VERSO trainers. Subsequently, the school itself can train new mediators as needed, using the material provided by VERSO. To become a trainee mediator, you must commit yourself to the rules of peer mediation and the role is voluntary.
Peer mediation is based on peer-to-peer mediation: this is why there is no single ”good” peer mediation student. However, there are a few things that contribute to good quality mediation work.
The focus is always on the student's own motivation and willingness: if the student wants to commit to the values of mediation and be a peer mediator, he or she will invest in what they do. In addition, the peer mediator has the advantage of being a person who can be trusted by other students: for example, a successful peer mediator may belong to a subculture of the student community, be from a different ethnic group, have practised mediation several times as a participant, be academically talented, be socially skilled, or have learning difficulties.
In other words, a peer mediator can be almost any student in the community who understands the values of mediation (i.e. the rules of the game: neutrality, silence, no punishment, seeking solutions, voluntarism), and commits to them when mediating the conflicts of others.
The school has a wide variety of pupils and learners. It is therefore important that pupils have the opportunity to meet a peer who looks like them/is like them when dealing with their own issues. It can be a watershed moment for a party to see a peer mediator who has similar challenges to themselves, or who represents the same subculture as themselves. ”If he can do it, why can't I?”
Serving as a peer mediator can also be a major turning point for the mediator himself, as the school community shows that he is trusted and shows that they believe in his abilities. A peer counsellor can find a new positive identity and experience spiritual growth by being given the opportunity to be something different and new.
Peer mediation aims to divert disputes as early as possible. In serious conflict situations, peer mediation can be used alongside professional help from the school if the parties so wish. In peer mediation training, adults and pupils are trained to recognise a serious situation and to work together in accordance with agreed practice in their own school. Peer mediators are constantly aware of the adult's support and responsibility when mediating a dispute. If a serious conflict arises in a mediation situation that requires adult assistance, peer mediators are able to refer the matter to adults. Situations are case by case and it is important that peer mediation is offered if the parties wish it.
In our experience, this has not been a problem in schools and colleges. The mediation session usually starts at the beginning of a pre-arranged break. If the conflict is not resolved during the break, the matter can be continued during the next break or immediately after the school day. If necessary, it may also be decided to conclude the mediation even if there is a slight delay in arriving for the lesson. It should be remembered that mediation itself is also a learning situation and is not something that is done for fun. In our experience, one mediation session is usually enough to reach an agreement. At the start of the activity, students are also informed about the peer mediation practices and the common rules of the game.
Peer mediators are students trained in the activity and always work in pairs. Peer mediation is also always supported and guided by a Verso adult/adults. As part of the mediation work, the peer mediator is expected to reflect independently, with the peer mediator pair, team, and the Verso adult in the school. The guidance, support and assistance of the school adult is an important part of the pupils' activities: if the peer mediator 'screws up' for one reason or another, the Verso adult will be there in the background to remedy the situation together with the pupil. The basic principles of mediation include learning from mistakes in a safe environment without compromising anyone's ability or worth, and the same applies to both parties and mediators.
”Let's work without blaming or stigmatising students. See them as socially growing young people learning social skills. Mistakes can happen, even big mistakes, and yet you go about supporting that social growth without the stigma and also without the fear of punishment or exclusion.” -Maija Gellin, VERSO Programme Director (Video below at 1:34:18)
Mediation is widely used in our society. Mediation is based on a restorative approach, which is a conflict management process that takes into account relationships, emotions and needs. The restorative approach emphasises a positive process based on encounter, discussion and cooperation, with the aim of increasing understanding between the parties. The parties are respected as experts in their own conflict and the central idea is to restore the past to the parties concerned so that they themselves can play an active role in the resolution of their case. The aim is to repair broken relationships and agree on reparation and how to proceed in order to avoid a recurrence of the conflict. Restorative justice and missionary practice is widely studied and used worldwide on all continents. Read more about the studies and restorative approach the theoretical basis.