Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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Last summer, I prepared 11 short course outlines on specialized negotiation and dispute resolution topics and posted them on PON’s website. (See PON’s Teaching Negotiation Resource Center at www.pon.harvard.edu/store.)

For decades, PON has provided roleplay simulations that can be used to teach negotiation and dispute resolution in a range of academic departments, business settings, community outreach programs, and government agencies. The role-play simulations have been widely used around the world.

There is a long history of using role plays and other interactive exercises since students of all kinds learn more from trying to do something rather than reading about it. While traditional learning emphasizes theories in the abstract, role plays provide real-life simulations that allow students to feel all the conflicts, tensions, and emotions that are harder to appreciate in theory than in practice.