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Group Problem Solving - Gateway to Meaningful Collaboration 

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Group Problem Solving - Gateway to Meaningful Collaboration 

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Group Problem Solving - Gateway to Meaningful Collaboration

Collaborative problem-solving involves people who share their resources, expertise, knowledge, and strategies to solve a common problem via effective communication. The success of group problem-solving relies on participants' communication skills (clear, concise, culturally appropriate, and direct), attention to the problem-solving steps, trust and respect, and administrative support (Cook & Friend, 2010).

Group Problem-solving Process

Step 1: Identify and define the problem - Identify the urgency of the problems as proactive, an anticipated situation, or reactive, a condition that requires your imminent attention and action

Step 2: Generate Solutions - use strategies like brains to, brainwriting, and NGT (Nominal Group Technique) to generate as many solutions as possible

Step 3: Evaluate Potential Solutions - in this step, each potential solution is evaluated and examined from a balanced perspective

Step 4: Select the Solutions - selection of solutions is based on intrusiveness, feasibility, and individual preference.

Step 5: Implement Solutions - Ensure that minute details are thoroughly considered in the planning phase

Step 6: Evaluate Outcomes - evaluate whether the established goal has been reached. If not, try another previously proposed solution, or start from scratch and reanalyze the context and the problem.

References

Friend, M. P., & Cook, L. (2020). Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals. Boston, MA: Pearson (Chapter 1).

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PMI strategy is a creative lateral/critical thinking tool that helps students to brainstorm ideas from different perspectives, allowing them to discuss opinions and identify strengths and weaknesses for future improvement (Plus Minus Interesting [PMI]  Strategy - Teacher/Parent - on the Job, n.d.).

Benefits

1. It can help students think out of the box

2. Helps students see the whole picture

3. Helps with decision-making - both creative and strategic thinking

4. Promotes collaboration - they work in groups to discuss the positives and negatives and arrive at a conclusion

Reference
Plus Minus Interesting [PMI]  Strategy - Teacher/Parent - On The Job. (n.d.). https://www.onthejob.education/teachers_parents/Lesson_Strategies/PMI_Strategy.htm

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DIT Labs - Fairfax County Public Schools

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Best Practices: Plus, Minus, Interest (PMI) in Elementary School

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MTSS - A Collaborative Problem-Solving Process

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MTSS - A Collaborative Problem-Solving Process

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A multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a proactive, prevention-based, integrated 3-tiered framework of team-driven data and an evidence-based problem-solving model for improving the outcomes of every student through partnering.

MTSS is an umbrella framework that includes Response to Intervention (RTI) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). RTI is a multi-tiered framework primarily for academic support, whereas PBIS is a multi-tiered framework for behavioral support (What Is MTSS? Multi-Tiered System of Supports Ultimate Guide - Branching Minds, n.d.).

MTSS and RTI Shared Foundational Philosophies

1. Data-driven instruction

2. Regular assessments

3. Evidence-based instruction and student placement

4. Multi-Tiered support for increasingly aggressive interventions

References
What Is MTSS? Multi-Tiered System of Supports Ultimate Guide - Branching Minds. (n.d.). https://www.branchingminds.com/mtss-guide

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Contrasting Perspectives (Problem-Solving Approaches) on RTI

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Contrasting Perspectives (Problem-Solving Approaches) on RTI

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Schools are encouraged to match the support that a student receives with the level of need demonstrated. Variation exists about the nature and purpose of Response to Intervention (RTI), how it is implemented, and how it will meet the needs of struggling learners. The hope is that these conflicting perspectives held by two groups, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), will lead to more robust RTI frameworks.

Common Ground - IDEA and NCLB Groups' Take on RTI Framework

1. Advocate for the early identification of struggling students - preventative intent of RTI.

2. Promote tiered instruction.

3. Support Classwide assessments, progress monitoring, and Universal screening to determine instruction's effectiveness and identify struggling readers.

IDEA Group’s - Standard Protocol Approach

1. Advocates for a top-down orientation and approach, evidence–based classwide programs, and researcher-determined instructions (replicable).

2. Instruction is standardized - Standard empirically based protocol interventions and time-sensitive processes.

3. At Tier 2(Targeted), one standard intervention is administered to struggling students in a small group setting - high fidelity of treatment implementation.

4. Support Tier 3 (Intensive) as special education instruction, the most intensive instructional tier

NCLB Group’s Problem-Solving Approach

1. Advocates for a bottom-up problem-solving approach rely on the practitioner’s experience to recreate standard practice and personalize it for each student‘s needs.

2. A favored Tier 1 (Proactive) approach is differentiated instruction.

3. At Tier 2 (Targeted), the team makes instructional decisions based on individual student performance - the behavioral consultation approach to problem-solving is used.

4. Tier 3 - Instruction is more individualized than standardized, more flexible than formal, and as recursive as necessary to accelerate student learning.

References
Friend, M. P., & Cook, L. (2020). Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals. Boston, MA: Pearson (Chapter 1).

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Special Education’s Continuum of Placement and Services

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Group’s Vision on Special Education’s Continuum of Placement and Services in an RTI Framework

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Group’s Vision on Special Education’s Continuum of Placement and Services in an RTI Framework

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IDEA Advocates

1. They support the view that Special education should continue as the most intensive tier with little change in the nature of its programs.
2. They also view high-incidence disabilities as valid.
3. They provide a more valid method of disability identification.

Panel B shows an expanded general education and smaller special education (Fuchs et al., 2010).

NCLB Advocates

The advocates of NCLB are of the view that, with the “right” general education in place and with a reformed service delivery system (RTI) that emphasizes early intervention and the unification of general education and special education, will be the disappearance of high-incidence disabilities (such children will prove capable).

Panel C depicts an NCLB’s vision of a new unified system of service delivery.
1. The top tier represents individualized instruction.
2. The tiers represent the intensity of classroom instruction. 3. An absence of the special education continuum supports the view that special education should no longer “own” a separate tier within such an RTI framework (Fuchs et al., 2010).

References
Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Stecker, P. M. (2010). The “Blurring” of Special Education in a New Continuum of General Education Placements and Services. Exceptional Children, 76(3), 301–323. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440291007600304

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Experimental teaching
1. Requires a trained clinician-researcher to work with children individually or in small groups.

2. The special educator works directly with the students and has the freedom to select and change interventions; the responsibility to accelerate students’ academic performance. 3. For experimental teaching to be successful, the teacher must be committed to a focused, analytical, data-based, recursive (test-teach-test) process, requiring patience, perseverance, ingenuity, tolerance of ambiguity, and deep knowledge of assessment and instruction.

Behavioral Consultation
1. In NCLB’s problem-solving approach to RTI, the behavioral consultant affects students’ academic performance or school behavior only through the actions of the teacher with whom he or she is working.

2. Therefore, the consultant’s problem-solving success ultimately depends on the effective collaboration between the consultant-teacher pair to make decisions regarding the treatment options.

3. Hence, the problem solver requires strong social and communication skills, the capacity to be understanding and aware of the teacher’s limits and constraints, and the ability to negotiate on behalf of the student.

The behavioral consultation approach to problem-solving calls for individualizing instruction at all tiers and hence is more efficient than the use of standard protocols (Fuchs et al., 2010).

References
Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Stecker, P. M. (2010). The “Blurring” of Special Education in a New Continuum of General Education Placements and Services. Exceptional Children, 76(3), 301–323. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440291007600304