MEDIATION METHOD
Usefulness:
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The Mediation method is a holistic work- and study method that enables all participants to be active through the cooperation.
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By making all participants jointly responsible for the goals of the cooperation you will encourage their enthusiasm as well as their participation.
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Interactivity and teamwork will ensure great identification with the goals and jointly made decisions for all participants.
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Methods used will ensure activity of the participants and therefore best use of time.
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The equipment used is simple and gives an opportunity to interwine to other methods and tools.
Basic rules:
Comments, ideas, problems, questions etc. are written on cards and pinned to the board, to be visible for all participants (visual aid technique)
Identical or coherent contributions are categorized under headlines (organising, overview)
Participants wishes on emphasis during the cooperation, interests, attitudes, evaluation etc. can easily be explained and cleared with self-sticking stickers
To be able to work more closely and deeper on themes or matters the group is divided into smaller workgroups or studie-communities
Conclusions and information are put forward in a visible and interesting fashion with the help of the Mediation method equipment
Objections, uncertainties, agreements are expressed and made visible appropriatley
Desicions and project segments are put forth in the form of lists, where participants are meant to be responsible for certain parts (ensuring success, mutual trust)
Mediation method reaches out to the participants on many different levels. First and foremost the visual, but for support there is music, smells and body-practices (appealing to different learning styles, holistic workmethod)
Basic principle is the activity of all participants through indipendent action and self-responsibility.
Uses:
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School
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Education/training
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Meetings
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Group work
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Organising
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Problem solving
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Introductions
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Ect.
Seven steps
Goals
a) to develop an expertise in communication (for instance we have used the model so as to improve the vocabulary related to feelings/emotions, and the subjunctive verb form);
b) to remove the obstacles of learning: by lowering the affective filter, accepting teacher’s methodology, becoming aware of each own cultural background and of the others’ one (stereotypes and prejudices).
Context
Foreign language classroom, multicultural environment
Phases
7 STEPS
Step 1) What is this?
Information is given about the kind of activity that will be carried out: students are informed that they will work on differences in point of views and perspectives. Then a game starts: a hidden object is touched for few seconds from students that should guess what it is. Teacher can ask to the student: “how much you want to bet?”. This is a funny ice-breaker that can introduce an interesting discussion on different perceptions.
Step 2) The unforgettable pictures!
The teacher shows three impressive pictures. The pictures can be replaced by three objects or some impressive material.
Step 3) Write the colour!
The students write emotions, ideas, places and everything they think about the pictures on coloured post-it and pick them on the board around the pictures.
Step 4) All together!
Each one gives an explanation of the choices he/she made, and a discussion is introduced (students can observe and consider the different feelings expressed from the others in the classroom). The plenary discussion is useful to introduce new vocabulary.
Step 5) Write-down!
What do the students think about the pictures? Students are asked to write a text about pictures. (For instance, in the last session we have carried out, the focus was made on using the subjunctive verb to express opinions)
Step 6) Who is the author?
Now each student casually chooses one text among those written by the others. He reads it to the group which tries to understand who is the author.
Step 7) Feedback!
Map and territories
Info about the method:
Conflcts between people arise because of misunderstandings or different visions that are opposite "maps" of the theoretically the sam "territories". "Map is not a territory". Territory is a thing or a phenomenon, anything that you can describe, but a "map" is already your vision or description of what you see.
Instructions:
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Divide the participants into small groups (if the participants are not numerous you can work together as one big group).
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Show to the participants a photo (to every group a different one) with a lot of details and ask them to look at it carefully and try to remember as many details as possible.
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Then ask everybody to write down a list (“a map”) of things they remember from the photo (everybody works individually) including as well colours and shapes.
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Once they are ready they start to share their lists (“maps”) of remembered things within the group and compare their “maps” with the other participants’.
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Once they finished comparing, the participants start to discuss together the following questions:
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Was there anything in this experiment that surprised you?
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Is only my “map” the right one?
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What can I learn from other participants’ “maps”?
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Are we all the same? Are there other things important for other participants?
GROW MODEL
There are a number of models and frameworks that mentors can use to provide feedback to. One well used model is GROW, an acronym standing for:
Goal – Reality – Options – Will.
The GROW model offers a way of structuring a mentoring sessions to facilitate a balanced discussion. The model is a simple yet powerful framework for structuring a mentoring session. (Mind Tools Ltd, 1996-2013)
The GROW model (or process) is a simple method for goal setting and problem solving. It was developed in the United Kingdom and was used extensively in corporate coaching in the late 1980s and 1990s.
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Goals
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Reality
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Options
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What next? Way forward?
How to Use the GROW Tool
To structure a coaching or mentoring session using the GROW Model, take the following steps:
1. Establish the Goal
The mentor and the mentee need to look at the behavior or skill that the mentee wants to change / develop, and then structure this change as a goal to achieve. Make sure to use SMARK Goals; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
2. Examine the Current Reality
The mentee must describe their current reality. This is important to fully considering their starting point, in order to reach their goal effectively. As your mentee tells you about his current reality, the solution may start to emerge.
3. Explore the Options
Now it is time to determine what the possible options for reaching the objective are. Brainstorm as many good options as possible. Then, discuss these and help her decide on the best ones. Here the mentor can offer their own suggestions but only after the mentee has it’s important to guide the mentee in the right direction, without actually making decisions for then.
4. Establish the Will
The final step is to get your mentee to commit to specific actions in order to move forward towards with their goal
(Mind Tools Ltd, 1996-2013)
Neuro Linguistic Programming is a self-development technique developed in the 1970s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Its purpose is to help individuals understand and take control of their thought processes and feelings and use them to bring about positive change in their lives.
Different learning styles refer to a range of competing and contested theories that aim to account for differences in individual´s learning. These theories propose that all people can be classified according to their style of learning. We all have preferences for how we like information to be presented and also preferences for the way we evaluate and analyse information.
Trainers, teachers and educators need to know that every person has an optimum way of learning new information. Some students need to be taught in ways that vary from standard teaching methods. Most of us learn in many ways, yet we usually favour one modality over the others. These modalities are according to the NLP model the following:
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Visual ( images )
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Auditory (sounds )
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Kinaesthetic ( touch and internal feelings )
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Gustatory ( tastes )
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Olfactory ( smells )
So in the learning process all of us use a combination of these senses but prefer one of them. The brain gets the ”picture” of what we are supposed to learn from a combination of these senses.
Possible exercises:
1. Talk about a subject of your own choice.
Pick any letter of the alphabet, eg U
Write three words starting with this letter, eg umbrella, uncle, understand.
Talk about one of these words for three or four minutes in pairs (2 students)
2. Guess my favourites
Make groups of three. Write some subjects on the white board, for example sport, hotel, drink, piece of furniture, author, artist, part of my body… (let the students find out more).
Introduce the phrases; ”I think that your favourite sport is table tennis” or ”Talking about furniture I believe that you like your sofa best. Is that correct?
– Yes! Why is that so? – Because….” Or
-No, that’s not correct. (continue guessing)
3. Stand in a circle according to your date of birth, your first names (or second) the name of the street where you live. Ask the other students of their date of birth ”What date where you born?” I was born on the twentieth of april, what date where you born” and then you make the circle from 1st of January to 31st of December (or from A to Z when you talk about names).
4. Five beautiful words
Students write their five favourite words in the target language on a piece of paper. Divide into groups of three. Now chose the five most beautiful word among the fifteen they have together. Now write a text, story or poem with the five beautiful included. Read the story loud to the rest of the class (all three authors can read). After the three readings the rest of the class guess which the five words are.
5. The sun and the moon
a) Remove the chairs to make an open space in the class room (or go out into the corridor). The students stand in a group in the middle of the room. The teacher could preferably be standing on a chair. Then the teacher presents opposites like ”The sun – The moon” or ”mother – father” or ” morning – evening” or ”beer – apple juice”. At the same time the teacher with her/his hands shows first to the right ”morning” and to the left ”evening” and the student move to either left or right according to what aspect they prefer. Have at least 20 opposites ready for the show!
Description of the model (step by step)
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To define one topic (for example, teacher, education , economic etc.).
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To create concepts (could be a lot of words –noun, verb or adjective) about the topic.
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To define participants’ perceptions from the topic and to conceive by drawing a picture or a schema about this topic.
The presented model can help the teachers to boost their students’ motivation, because, we think that our model is effective learning for students and this model could keep our students active during the lesson. Furthermore, our lessons are therotical and we must find different adaptations to involve our students. And they can draw the topic of their mind. We want to see topic’s meaning which is in the mind of students.
The model works very well when the teachers needs to:
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use time effectively.
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distinguish knowledge level of students about a special topic.
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facilitate his/her the transfer of knowledge.
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have a great learning time.
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do effective group for workshops.
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develop creative thinking skills.
Thanks to working with this model the students can:
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grasp automatically the topic.
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understand the topic easily.
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facilitate another step of learning.
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increase the level of internal motivation
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increase responsibility of the students.
express their thoughts about the topic