1. Collaborative and Proactive Solutions: Part 1
Laura L. Fuller, Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry
University of Iowa

2. Objectives Participants will
Identify challenging behaviors in the classroom & become familiar with options for managing them
Learn about an alternative approach for managing challenging classroom behaviors
Be able to state the core philosophy of CPS
Become familiar with the 3 parts of a proactive problem solving conversation
Be aware of additional resources regarding CPS

3. Introduction of presenter

4. You will learn a lot of things in college….
…but there may be some things that aren’t explicitly taught, too, like….

5. What to do about challenging classroom behaviors?

6. Stories?
My story about the kid who had lost everything

7. Who usually ends up managing the problems?
School discipline

8. Who are our “frequent flyers” in accessing school discipline?
Can respond easily to behavior expectations
May need a little extra help or explanation
At risk

9. What are the traditional approaches to managing challenging behavior?
From Mother Jones July/August 2015:
How we deal with the most challenging kids remains rooted in B.F. Skinner's mid-20th-century philosophy that human behavior is determined by consequences and bad behavior must be punished. (Pavlov figured it out first, with dogs.) During the school year, the US Department of Education counted 130,000 expulsions and roughly 7 million suspensions among 49 million K-12 students—one for every seven kids. The most recent estimates suggest there are also a quarter-million instances of corporal punishment in US schools every year.
Did you know? 16 U.S. states still allow corporal punishment in the schools.
In a 2011 study that tracked nearly 1 million schoolchildren over six years, researchers at Texas A&M University found that kids suspended or expelled for minor offenses—from small-time scuffles to using phones or making out—were three times as likely as their peers to have contact with the juvenile justice system within a year of the punishment. (Black kids were 31 percent more likely than white or Latino kids to be punished for similar rule violations.) Kids with diagnosed behavior problems such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and reactive attachment disorder—in which very young children, often as a result of trauma, are unable to relate appropriately to others—were the most likely to be disciplined.

10. Are there problems with how school discipline is working in some places?

11. School to prison pipeline

12. School-to-Prison Pipeline
From the website of the American Civil Liberties Union:
The ACLU is committed to challenging the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse, or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished, and pushed out.
“Zero-tolerance” policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while cops in schools lead to students being criminalized for behavior that should be handled inside the school. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline.

13. Dan Losen, J.D. M.Ed. Explaining the School to Prison Pipeline

14. Another option: solve problems collaboratively

15. The core philosophy of CPS:
Kids do well if they can

16. Kids do well if they want to
Contrast
Kids do well if they can
With
Kids do well if they want to

17. In other words, Lagging Skills vs Lagging Motivation
Your interpretation guides your intervention
If you think it’s Lagging Skills, you teach skills
If you think it’s low motivation, you motivate

18. Exercise

19. Exercise: identify which are nouns, verbs and adjectives
Gesund
Haus
Trinken
Schlafen
Brot
Mager
Bier
Hut
Niedrig
Dunkel
Alt
Geld
Spazierengehen
Haben

20. Changing your lenses is the 1st step
Viewing challenging behavior as the result of lagging skills is much different than viewing the child as “ornery” “attention seeking” or “manipulative”

21. Changing Your “Job Description” Might be Another Way to Think About This
What is your goal?
Teachers who aim to control students' behavior—rather than helping them control it themselves— may undermine the very elements that are essential for motivation: autonomy, a sense of competence, and a capacity to relate to others.

22. What are my options?
Use your knowledge of the student and the situation to help you decide what “Plan” to use

23. Plans A, B and C for handling challenges
Whose concern is addressed
What it sounds like
Plan A- adult’s concern is addressed (unilateral problem solving)
Plan B- both adult’s and child’s concerns are addressed (Collaborative Problem Solving)
Plan C- child’s concern is addressed
“No” “You must” “you can’t”
“Let’s think of a way that we can (address your concern) and (address my concern)”
“OK” (or adult says nothing at all)

24. How to have a problem solving conversation overview
Part 1: Empathy- clarify the child’s concern
Part 2: Defining the Problem- get adult’s and child’s concerns on the table
Part 3: Invitation to Problem Solving- ask child to brainstorm ideas with you

25. The importance of being proactive
Calm: The brain is ready to problem solve
In Crisis: The brain is not ready to problem solve
And if you don’t solve problems proactively they are likely to come up again, and again, and again….

26. How to have a problem solving conversation
Part 1: Empathy- clarify the child’s concern
State what you noticed in a neutral manner
Ask “what’s up” or something similar
Use reflective listening
“Drill down” until you are clear about the child’s concern

27. How to have a problem solving conversation
Part 2: Defining the Problem- get adult’s and child’s concerns on the table
Once you are clear about child’s concern, restate it, and then say “My concern is..”
Adult concerns are often about learning, relationships, or safety

28. How to have a problem solving conversation
Part 3: Invitation to Problem Solving- ask child to brainstorm ideas with you
Can you think of a way we can (address child’s concern) and (address adult’s concern)?
Solutions need to be mutually satisfactory and realistic

29. What will Part 2 be about? Very brief review
More in depth discussion of core philosophy and “changing your lenses”
Practice the parts of a Plan B Conversation
See video examples
Talk more about available resources

30. Positive experiences with CPS
“The Maine project”
and some of the impressive data they have gotten so far

31. Durham Community School K-8

32. Durham Community School K-8

33. Durham Community School K-8

34. Central School, South Berwick (PK-3)

35. Central School, South Berwick (PK-3)

36. Morse Street School, Freeport, PK-2

37. Morse Street School, Freeport, PK-2

38. Kennebunk Elem., Kennebunk, K-3

39. Lisbon Comm. School, Lisbon, PK-5

40. Further resources: Lost and Found by Ross Greene, Ph.D.
Lost at School by Ross Greene, Ph.D.
The Explosive Child by Ross Greene, Ph.D.
Raising Human Beings by Ross Greene, Ph.D.
Katherine Reynolds Lewis , What if Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids was Wrong? Mother Jones, July/August 2015.
Greene, R.W. (2011). Collaborative Problem Solving* can transform school discipline. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(2),
Greene, R. W. (2010). Student behavior problems: Time to rethink and retool. Our Children, The National PTA Magazine
Greene, R.W. (2010). Calling all frequent flyers. Educational Leadership, 68(2),

41. Objectives- did we meet them?
Are you now able to:
Identify challenging behaviors in the classroom & identify at least 3 options for managing them
Describe an alternative approach to managing challenging classroom behaviors
State the core philosophy of CPS
Describe the 3 parts of a proactive problem solving conversation
Find at least 2 additional resources regarding CPS ?

42. Discussion/Conclusion
CPS is an individualized, proactive, skill-building approach to working with kids who have challenging behavior (or any situation where there is conflict)
CPS has been found to be effective in the schools at reducing challenging behaviors and disciplinary actions, and increasing desired behaviors
There are high costs for punitive and adversarial discipline approaches and a much higher rate of negative outcomes for kids who are suspended, etc

43. Questions/comments