The Test Design Project
The Test Design Project (1990-95) was a formative effort
to design better selection, training and evaluation tools for the emerging
mediation "industry." The project was directed by Christopher Honeyman,
managing partner of CONVENOR. Others
involved included internationally recognized experts in many varieties of
dispute resolution; representatives of most of the national membership
organizations in the field; and several representatives of the courts. The
project was viewed by outside commentators as
"a group of prominent scholars and practitioners" (Editor's Note,
Negotiation Journal, October 1993), who attempted
"an important and terribly difficult task" (Carrie Menkel-Meadow,
Professor of Law, UCLA) with
"a clarity and rigor of thought which is all too rare in this area" (Robert
Dingwall, Professor of Social Studies, University of Nottingham).
The project assisted numerous official bodies responsible
for the design and evaluation of a number of mediation programs, including
the U.S. Department of State; Administrative Conference of the U.S.
(Washington, DC); Legal Aid Board (London, England); Massachusetts Office of
Dispute Resolution; the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution; and
other government agencies, court systems and membership organizations.
The project's concluding product was
Performance-Based Assessment: A Methodology, for use in
selecting, training and evaluating mediators. Published by
the National Institute for Dispute Resolution, this document lays out the
competing perceptions of what a mediator is supposed to do, and offers
performance-based tools for improving and assessing competence. An
overview
is followed by a sample, consisting of three chapters; the
full text can be
downloaded as a .pdf file. |