PON – Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School - https://www.pon.harvard.edu
Academia Role-Play:
Biography, The
$0.00 – $6.00
Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone
Two-party negotiation between a teaching fellow and a student about the student's grade on a paper exploring biographical and racial issues
Log In or Register to download the free Teacher's Package Sample.
SCENARIO:
A Student recently handed in a mid-term paper for a class called "Biography and Race." He was extremely proud of the paper, which was written about his Latina nanny. He even sent her a copy. He was dismayed to receive a C+, and called for a meeting with his teaching fellow (TF). The TF in turn is dismayed by the lack of understanding shown by the student, who is one of only two white students taking the course.
TEACHING MATERIALS:
Role Specific:
Confidential Instructions for the Student
Confidential Instructions for the Teaching Fellow
Teacher's Package
All of the above
MAJOR LESSONS:
This role simulation is a good tool for demonstrating, active listening. The two parties understand the situation very differently. How well they are able to listen to the other position is extremely important to the resolution of the problem.
Issues of race, and cultural sensitivity are extremely emotional issues which can quickly derail a negotiation. Both of the participants see the other as deficient in understanding other races. How these thoughts are broached is crucial to the success of the negotiation.
This is a simulation with no clear ending. Do the people playing the student just want their grade changed, or do they want to understand what the TF wants? Does the TF want to calm the student down, and provide them with a way to get a higher grade, or do they want to improve the student's sensitivity and writing style? Is the paper the center of the negotiation, or just a side-line?
Prof. Susskind’s Top 5 Environmental Negotiation Teaching Materials
From time to time, the Teaching Negotiation Resource Center asks PON-affiliated faculty to nominate their top five books, top five teaching videos or top five role-play simulations in certain fields or teaching settings. These change periodically.