Creative Problem Solving for General Education Intervention Teams

Abstract

Creative problem solving (CPS) is an approach for identifying solutions to problems within a structured, facilitated process. In the current studies, CPS was customized for general education intervention (GEI) teams in elementary schools. In the first study, 24 GEI teams were randomly assigned either to a CPS for GEI training condition or to a control group. Team outcome measures were tracked over the course of a school year, and the CPS for GEI teams consistently demonstrated superior performance relative to controls across all measures. One year later, a second study investigated 2 approaches to delivering training in CPS for GEI teams. Five teams received CPS for GEI training directly from university-based staff, and 9 teams received training from employees in their district who had previously received CPS for GEI training from the university-based staff (a “train-the-trainers” approach). Schools receiving training from their own staff performed as well as the independently trained schools, thereby providing support for the train-the-trainers approach. Discussion focuses on the results from both studies and identifies areas for future research and practice with CPS for GEI teams.