Bullying and peer victimization are increasingly recognized as a detriment to the well-being of students. While the past two decades have seen the development of several effective approaches to prevention at the elementary and middle school levels, very little research has documented effective strategies for students in high schools. The current…

A vast amount of contemporary research has been devoted to defining effective school leadership roles and practices and measuring their influence on school processes, structures and outcomes. This paper examines the effects of trust in principals and school leaders' focus on instruction on teacher collaboration and teacher self-efficacy. Using…

Many schools use exclusionary discipline--such as suspensions and expulsions--to deter students from misbehaving and to protect students from the harms associated with exposure to student misbehavior. Research indicates that, while often implemented with good intentions, exclusionary discipline increases (rather than deters) misbehavior and risks…

Whereas defending victims can put an end to school bullying incidents, few witnesses engage in such behavior. This study aimed to explore the intention to defend victims among distinct witness profiles based on behavioral and psychological characteristics. Within the framework of the theory of planned behavior, we measured intentions, attitudes,…

Introduction: School mediation training is important because it teaches students to resolve differences in a non-violent way. Despite the benefits it offers, research on the subject is scarce and the background is mostly focused on theoretically understanding the conflict to develop specific techniques and tools that are useful for peer students,…

Across the country, many schools have adopted restorative practices in an effort to improve school climate and student outcomes while reducing exclusionary discipline. Restorative practices are designed to proactively build community, improve relationships, and help students amend harm when conflict occurs. Using 6 years of student survey data and…

School coexistence is an educational challenge and the implementation of mediation is an essential tool for managing conflicts and improving interpersonal relationships. However, there are few studies that show its impact and even fewer that take into account students' perceptions. In this ex post facto research, we are interested in finding out…

Pragmatic language difficulties of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can significantly impact their ability to engage in socially appropriate conversations and form peer relationships. Using a multiple baseline design across participants, this study evaluated the effects of a novel peer-mediated intervention (PMI) on improving the…

Social communication is a key component in building and maintaining friendships. However, students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability often exhibit deficits in communication behaviors. Peer-mediated interventions are an evidence-based practice in increasing social communication skills for elementary and middle school…

Social skills training has become a major focus for improving the lives of individuals with disabilities. Students with emotional and behavioral disorders often lack the social skills necessary to build and maintain positive relationships with others and require individualized training to appropriately engage across all settings. Despite the…

Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) offer substantial benefits to middle school, high school, and post-secondary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). However, with no valid and reliable measure to capture the ways in which the peers without disabilities are impacted, far less is known about the outcomes for these…

This study explores the impact of implementing a peer mediation program in a middle school setting through an action research framework, presented as a series of case studies. The group of students receiving the intervention are on one "team" in the middle school, sharing the same group of teachers. The team is on a lower academic track,…

Formative assessment can raise standards of achievement. In physical education, when formative assessment was incorporated into instruction, students performed better in terms of skills and were more on-task. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of formative assessment on success and response rate of a sixth grade badminton unit.…

This study evaluated the efficacy of School-Based Teen Courts (SBTCs) using a rigorous experimental trial with 24 middle- and high-schools randomly selected to receive SBTCs (n= 12) or to business-as-usual without any SBTC program (n = 12). Analyses examined school-level longitudinal growth models and individual-level pretest-posttest comparisons…

International institutions and national and regional governments are promoting a culture that includes the use of mediation in secondary schools. The literature review and the previous empirical research suggest that the introduction of mediation as an alternative method for conflict resolution helps improve school climate, thus improving the…