Abstract:

I. Location of the paper in the context of Conference:

The author presents this paper to the International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN 2010) that will be held in Barcelona on the 5th-7th of July 2010. Within its main goal - to promote and disseminate the experiences in New Technologies and E-learning applied to Education in all fields and disciplines- the author wants to study the following two matters:

->Education: Educational Trends and Best Practice Contributions: The author is teacher of Jurisdictional Law, the branch of Law that explains and regulates how to resolve disputes of citizens before the courts. Judicial resolution of consumer dispute is studied in particular all courses, showing all defects that courts present in their work to solve it (expensive, slow, produce dissatisfaction,…). That is for, in the context of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) movement, last years, have appeared alternative tools to jurisdiction in order to solve all kind of disputes and consumer conflicts specially. Mediation is one of those. The author of this paper has designed a pedagogical project to explain and practice mediation with law students. He wants to share his experience through this paper.

->Pedagogical Innovations in Education: learning and teaching methodologies: the author wants to explain how he has designed and implemented during the first semester of 2009-2010 school year a pedagogical intervention project in order to teach and learn mediation as dispute resolution method to solve consumer dispute. Taking advantage of the novelty of the subject, has put aside the traditional methodology based on behaviourism and designed one based on constructivism.

II. Consumer mediation: the best instrument to solve consumer dispute.

Consumer dispute is peculiar. It affects most people and usually has a low value. Therefore, judicial way, the judiciary, does not usually provide an adequate solution for it. Hence solutions for it have sought outside the judicial power. In this context, Alternative Dispute Resolution worldwide movement encourages people to use private mechanisms, consensus-based negotiation, in order to resolve their conflicts in general, and consumer disputes specially.

Consumer arbitration has used in Spain since 1993 to resolve consumer disputes out of courts. However, arbitration is very similar to jurisdiction, presenting often the same drawbacks (expensive, imperative,…). Besides, arbitration is not the only tool to solve consumer dispute out of courts. Mediation also exists and a lot of times can be better instrument to solve the dispute between the consumer and the professional or the company.

III. A new methodology to teach and learn consumer mediation The experience of the first semester of 2009-2010 school year at the University of the Basque Country.

The first semester of 2009-2010 school-year, the one who writes these lines has worked consumer mediation with the students of the Faculty of Law. In order to develop this aim, have been followed a methodology based on three pillars: (1) cooperative learning, (2) problem-based learning, and (3) case method.

We have dedicated 10 hours to study consumer mediation in a practical way. Students have felt as the consumer, the mediator and the company in a mediation procedure. Researching work has been combined with some cases solution.

Keywords:

consumer mediation, methodology, cooperative learning, problem-based learning, case method.