Résumés
Abstract
In graduate-level courses that include conflict resolution as a core component, assessing conflict-engagement competencies of mid-career professionals presents several challenges. Educators must identify which competencies to emphasize while designing assignments and assessments that respect the cultures, professional backgrounds, and neurodiverse learning profiles of learners. This reflective paper explores the tensions and opportunities that educators can encounter when designing assignments and assessments that move beyond surface-level evaluation towards fostering deeper, more adaptive capacities for conflict engagement. Framed through a practitioner-inquiry lens, it highlights assignments and assessments that can engage learners to identify and develop conflict competencies that are appropriate for their personal and professional contexts. In doing so, it positions assessment alongside conflict engagement as evolving, messy, iterative, and deeply human processes.
Keywords:
- alternative assessment,
- experiential learning,
- reflective pedagogy,
- conflict skills assessment,
- conflict intelligence
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Alexander, N., & LeBaron, M. (2009). Death of the role-play. In C. Honeyman, J. Coben, & G. De Palo (Eds.), Rethinking negotiation teaching: Innovations for context and culture (pp. 179–197). DRI Press. http://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1872
- Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1, 25–48.
- Atleo, E. R. (2012). Principles of Tsawalk: An Indigenous approach to global crisis. UBC Press. https://www.ubcpress.ca/principles-of-tsawalk
- Coleman, P. T. (2018). Conflict intelligence and systemic wisdom: Meta-competencies for engaging conflict in a complex, dynamic world. Negotiation Journal, 34(1), 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12211
- Coleman, P. T. (2024). Navigating firestorms: The imperative of conflict-intelligent leadership in a turbulent world. Negotiation Journal, 40(1–2), 5–40. https://doi.org/10.1162/ngtn_a_00003
- Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2019). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry (4th ed.). Corwin Press.
- Dinnar, S., Dede, C., Johnson, E., Straub, C., & Korjus, K. (2021). Artificial intelligence and technology in teaching negotiation. Negotiation Journal, 37(1), 65–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12351
- Druckman, D., & Ebner, N. (2013). Games, claims, and new frames: Rethinking the use of simulation in negotiation education. Negotiation Journal, 29(1), 61–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12005
- Ebner, N., Efron, Y., & Kovach, K. K. (2012). Evaluating our evaluation: Rethinking student assessment in negotiation courses. In N. Ebner, J. Coben, & C. Honeyman (Eds.), Assessing our Students, Assessing Ourselves (pp. 19–42). DRI Press. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2293955
- Fawns, T., Bearman, M., Dawson, P., Nieminen, J. H., Ashford-Rowe, K., Willey, K., Jensen, L. X., Damşa, C., & Press, N. (2025). Authentic assessment: From panacea to criticality. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 50(3), 396–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2024.2404634
- Foster, T. N., & Farquharson, E. R. (2011). Assessment procedures for skills‐based MBA courses adapted from the U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Leadership Development Program. Negotiation Journal, 27(3), 367–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2011.00312.x
- Goodchild, M. (2021). Relational systems thinking: That’s how change is going to come, from our Earth Mother. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 1(1), 75–103. https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i1.577
- Goodchild, M. (2022). Relational systems thinking: The dibaajimowin (story) of re-theorizing “systems thinking” and “complexity science.” Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 2(1), 53–76. https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.2027
- Hedeen, T., Raines, S. S., & Barton, A. B. (2010). Foundations of mediation training: A literature review of adult education and training design. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 28(2), 157–182. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.20018
- Jacobs, J., Yendol-Hoppey, D., & Dana, N. F. (2015). Preparing the next generation of teacher educators: The role of practitioner inquiry. Action in Teacher Education, 37(4), 373–396. https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2015.1078758
- Lewicki, R. J., & Schneider, A. K. (2010). Instructors heed the who: Designing negotiation training with the learner in mind. Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1691265
- McAdoo, B., & Manwaring, M. (2009). Teaching for implementation: Designing negotiation curricula to maximize long-term learning. Negotiation Journal, 25(2), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2009.00220.x
- Morales, S. N. (2014). Snuw’uyulh: Fostering an understanding of the Hul’qumi’num legal tradition [Doctoral dissertation, University of Victoria]. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/6106
- Nayar, B., & Koul, S. (2020). Blended learning in higher education: A transition to experiential classrooms. International Journal of Educational Management, 34(9), 1357–1374. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-08-2019-0295
- Nelken, M. L. (2009). Negotiating classroom process: Lessons from adult learning. Negotiation Journal, 25(2), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2009.00219.x
- Owusu-Agyeman, Y., & Fourie-Malherbe, M. (2019). Negotiating co-ownership of learning in higher education: An underexplored practice for adult learning. Studies in Continuing Education, 41(1), 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2018.1497591
- Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2013). Critical thinking: Intellectual standards essential to reasoning well within every domain of human thought. Journal of Developmental Education, 36(3), 34–35.
- Petroelje Stolle, E., & Frambaugh-Kritzer, C. (2025). Critical friendship quality and trustworthiness: Our new understandings. Studying Teacher Education, 21(1), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2024.2443572
- Pinnegar, S., & Hamilton, M. L. (2009). Self-study of practice as a genre of qualitative research: Theory, methodology, and practice. Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9512-2_8
- Poitras, J., Hill, K., Hamel, V., & Pelletier, F.-B. (2015). Managerial mediation competency: A mixed-method study. Negotiation Journal, 31(2), 105–129. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12085
- Poitras, J., Stimec, A., & Hill, K. (2013). Fostering student engagement in negotiation role plays. Negotiation Journal, 29(4), 439–462. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12036
- Polkinghorn, B. D., La Chance, H., & La Chance, R. (2008). Constructing a baseline understanding of developmental trends in graduate conflict resolution programs in the United States. In R. Fleishman, C. Gerard, & R. O’Leary (Eds.), Pushing the boundaries: New frontiers in conflict resolution and collaboration. Emerald Group Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-786X(08)29009-9
- Rider, E. A., & Keefer, C. H. (2006). Communication skills competencies: Definitions and a teaching toolbox. Medical Education, 40(7), 624–629. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02500.x
- Smolinski, R., & Xiong, Y. (2020). In search of master negotiators: A negotiation competency model. Negotiation Journal, 36(3), 365–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12332
- Swaffield, S. (2004). Critical friends: Supporting leadership, improving learning. Improving Schools, 7(3), 267–278. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480204049340
- Wood, G. (2020). Theoretical and operational reflections on the interdisciplinary PBL simulation for conflict negotiation and communication at the University of Helsinki. Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education, 8(2), 42–60. https://doi.org/10.5278/ojs.jpblhe.v8i2.3181