LAW4568 · Foundations of mediation

Overview

This unit provides students with an opportunity to learn via practice, the essential negotiation, mediation and communication skills required to become a mediator and which are valuable for legal practitioners when assisting clients in mediations. Students learn practical skills by participating in a range of conflict scenarios and receive individual feedback on their style and overall performance by the lecturer who is a qualified practitioner. Working with the mediation model, students will learn alternative approaches to deal with varying circumstances and will also investigate theoretical issues and relevant empirical studies in mediation ethics, inter-cultural context, contingent 3rd party interventions, power and empowerment, as well as other topics.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. Apply knowledge of, and understanding of, the facilitative mediation model and the purpose of each stage in the process, with creativity and initiative, to new situations in professional practice.
2. Demonstrate an ability to explain the different approaches to negotiation and dispute resolution and when each might be appropriate.
3. Investigate, analyse and reflect meaningfully on complex information and problems in relation to the facilitative mediation model.
4. Demonstrate a range of skills and techniques in communication, negotiation and mediation.
5. Conduct research in current issues in conflict resolution based on knowledge of appropriate research principles and methods.
6. Use cognitive, technical and creative skills to generate and evaluate, at an abstract level, complex ideas and concepts relevant to the facilitative mediation model.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.