Conflict Resolution And Peacemaking
Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking
Rebecca Rodriguez
9/15/2014
PSY/400
University of Phoenix
Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking Recently I read an article by Hal Pepinsky titled Peacemaking in the classroom. This article is all about how Mr. Pepinsky used conflict resolution and peacemaking in a college setting. To understand where he is coming from in this article a little background is needed. Mr. Pepinsky is a college professor who taught a class for second year criminal justice majors. He thought this class would be a great place to experiment with peacemaking and conflict resolution. He started this by throwing out the traditional grading scale and changing it to a pass or fail. Although he was laughed out of a university for this thought process, he found his footing with a different idea. When at a new school he started with a new system. Instead of the whole class being pass or fail. He instated a weekly journal that his students would need to discuss the reactions to the course material. Pepinsky told his students that they would need to write about the same amount they would write in a 40 page paper. Although once and a while he would get students that would write about 100-200 pages. Pepinsky would ask his co-instructors to grade these entries from A-F. He noticed that in time when he got his co-instructors to become more involved with the grading process. They gave more feedback and got more involved than before. When he simply asked them to review the journal entries and not give them a grade. Pepinsky tried to keep peace in the classroom with this grading process. Instead of having the conflict of why did I get this grade when I did this. He made it very clear in the syllabus of how the grading would be done. As well as in the first class he explains to the students exactly what it takes to pass and or fail this class. Pepinsky does not believe in the traditional grading scale. He believes that a person earns a grade and does not
Rebecca Rodriguez
9/15/2014
PSY/400
University of Phoenix
Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking Recently I read an article by Hal Pepinsky titled Peacemaking in the classroom. This article is all about how Mr. Pepinsky used conflict resolution and peacemaking in a college setting. To understand where he is coming from in this article a little background is needed. Mr. Pepinsky is a college professor who taught a class for second year criminal justice majors. He thought this class would be a great place to experiment with peacemaking and conflict resolution. He started this by throwing out the traditional grading scale and changing it to a pass or fail. Although he was laughed out of a university for this thought process, he found his footing with a different idea. When at a new school he started with a new system. Instead of the whole class being pass or fail. He instated a weekly journal that his students would need to discuss the reactions to the course material. Pepinsky told his students that they would need to write about the same amount they would write in a 40 page paper. Although once and a while he would get students that would write about 100-200 pages. Pepinsky would ask his co-instructors to grade these entries from A-F. He noticed that in time when he got his co-instructors to become more involved with the grading process. They gave more feedback and got more involved than before. When he simply asked them to review the journal entries and not give them a grade. Pepinsky tried to keep peace in the classroom with this grading process. Instead of having the conflict of why did I get this grade when I did this. He made it very clear in the syllabus of how the grading would be done. As well as in the first class he explains to the students exactly what it takes to pass and or fail this class. Pepinsky does not believe in the traditional grading scale. He believes that a person earns a grade and does not