Michael,
I've never tried this, but I was reading a book of classroom excercises
tonight
and stumbled upon it. Maybe it will work for you.
"Finding Common Ground in an Argument"
Time required: 30 minutes or less
Risk Level: Low
Participants needed: Any number of participants, plus one facilitator
Procedure:
1. Ask for two volunteers from the group, one man and one woman, to
role-play as
a husband and wife wanting a divorce (a variation of this would be an employer
in conflict with an employee, or any two people who are in conflict).
2. Have each spend a minute or two (no longer) explaining why they want a
divorce or how they have been badly treated by the other.
3. At the end of these two brief, uninterrupted monologues, ask the
rest of the
participants to act as marriage counselors (or conflict managers) and ask
questions of one or the other person, who remain in role. The other group
members may work individually or build on one another's comments, but ideally
everyone will have a chance to contribute.
4. Interrupt the group member "marriage counselors" from time to time,
reminding
them to avoid interpreting the behavior out of context.
5. At the end of the role play, have both comment on what advice was most
useful.
Debriefing: In debriefign the leader asks each of the two role-players to tell
how they felt during the interaction and to recall which comments seemed the
most helpful and why. As long as the marriage counselors comments focus on the
"bad" behaviors of one ot the other person, the conflict will escalate (and it
is very hard not to focus on the behaviors). However, if the group members
address the topicof positive shared expectations (e.g. "Tell me about when the
two of you met and fell in love") without discussing behaviors until both
parties in the conflict can clearly see that they share the common ground of
wanting respect, fairness, trust, safety, or some other positive expectation,
the conflict can be contained, even though their behavior for expressing or
getting that expectation might be different.
Discussion questions might include:
1. Was it difficult to avoid focusing on the behaviors of the people in
conflict?
2. Were you surprised my the coments considered most helpful?
3. Why is it important to establish common groung in managing conflict
constructively?
4. Can conflict ever be managed constructively without first finding common
ground?
5. Why does the argument escalat when you focus on behaviors?
6. How does this strategy fit with your natural methos of finding
common ground?
From: 101 Experiences for Multicultural Learning, Paul B. Pederson, 2004.
Jessica L. Collett, M.A.
Department of Sociology
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721-0027
http://www.members.cox.net/~jessica.collett
--
"Creativity is to intellectual life what speed is to sport. You can't teach or
train it. You can only try to stay out of its way." ~ Henry A. Walker
Quoting Michael Johnston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Hi,
Any recommendations for in-class exercises on conflict resolution would
be very welcome. Could be simulations, role-plays, or any other
activity in which students participate.
Thanks in advance,
Michael
