Building Resilience
in Children and
Young People
Problem-Solving
Teacher Professional
Development
Problem-Solving
Why Teach Problem- Solving?
• The coping repertoire of children and adolescents includes
their problem-solving competencies and skills
• Problem-solving is identified by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) as a key skill for health
• It is important to help students develop their critical and
creative thinking skills
• Young people need to be able to think logically and predict
and evaluate the consequences of various actions
• They benefit from learning a range of problem-solving
techniques that can be applied when confronting personal,
social, and ethical dilemmas
• Students benefit from applied learning tasks in which they
apply their problem-solving skills to realistic scenarios
Problem-Solving
Why Students need to participate in problemidentification and problem-solving
• People tend to resist solutions that are pushed
upon them by others
• They rebut arguments, highlight the barriers and
end up speaking the argument against change
• When the solution is imagined and spoken by the
person themselves, then they are more able to
take it up
• When students identify positive solutions, they
create the possibility of enacting these strategies
Problem-Solving
Activities in Problem-Solving Lessons aim to assist
students to:
Foundation
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Recognise the needs and interests of others
Listen to others’ ideas and recognise that others may see things differently
Identify options when making decisions to meet their needs and the needs of others
Recognise there are many ways to solve conflict
Describe similarities and differences in points of view between themselves and people in their communities
Identify cooperative behaviours in a range of group activities
Practise individual and group decision-making
Practise solving simple interpersonal problems
Identify communication skills that enhance relationships for particular groups and purposes
Describe characteristics of cooperative behaviour and identify evidence of these in group activities
Contribute to and predict the consequences of group decisions in a range of situations
Identify a range of conflict resolution strategies to negotiate positive outcomes to problems
Discuss the concept of leadership and identify situations where it is appropriate to adopt this role
Describe and apply strategies that can be used in situations that make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe
Devise strategies and plans to assist in the completion of challenging tasks, decisions or problems
Identify factors that influence decision-making
Identify causes and effects of conflict and practice different strategies to diffuse or resolve it
Predict the outcomes of challenges based on problem-solving and decision-making strategies
Assess individual and group decision-making processes in challenging situations
Plan projects, applying effective problem-solving and team-building strategies
Acknowledge the values, opinions and attitudes of different groups
Level 9/10
Problem-Solving
Models for Problem-Solving
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Problem-solving can be broken down into a number of smaller steps:
Naming the problem (no blaming, no emotion, just facts)
Brainstorming options (collect many ideas)
Predicting the consequences of the options
Appraising the positive or negative features of each option
Evaluating the practicality of the various ideas (could this one work?)
Assessing what strengths and resources are needed to carry out a
particular choice
Choosing the best option
Deciding what would need to be done, by whom, when
Trying out the option
Assessing the option (Did it work? If not, repeat the thinking steps)
Problem-Solving
Use of Stimulus Scenarios
• The Building Resilience Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) lesson
materials provide a number of learning activities to promote the skills of
problem-solving
• Scenarios are provided to challenge students to apply their thinking to
the types of personal and social situations that they or their peers might
encounter as part of daily life. They can be modified by the teacher to
suit the needs of the class
• Use of the scenarios provided permits an externalised focus and
removes the need for students to disclose their personal problems in
the public space of the classroom. This also protects the privacy of
those others who may be involved in the students’ personal problems
• Students are encouraged to use more private help-seeking pathways in
the school to seek assistance with their own problems
Problem-Solving
Examples of problem-solving models:
Level 3-4: The Roads and Roundabouts Model
Centre of the roundabout:
name the issue or problem
Exit roads:
for different options
Destinations:
the consequences or the
destination the journey will take
you to
1. Students are asked to identify the
different options and imagine the
consequences before they decide
which destination they will choose.
2. They take thinking time as they go
around the roundabout.
Problem-Solving
Examples of problem-solving models:
Level 5-6: The Daisy Model
Stem:
name the problem
Petals:
the possible options
Centre of the flower:
the chosen option
• Students are asked to evaluate
the different options before
they decide which one to
choose
Problem-Solving
Examples of problem-solving models:
Level 7-8: The Tree Change Model
Students draw a tree outlining the
following:
Trunk: name the issue or problem
Roots: multiple causes of the problem
Branches: possible options
Leaves: possible consequences of the
option chosen
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The ‘problem tree’ is used as a thinking
tool to explore a problem and to think
through the options before making a
choice about what to do
Problem-Solving
Teacher Activity: Problem-Solving
Use one of the problem-solving
models to work through the
following scenario:
EXAMPLE SCENARIO:
Overstretched
Olivia is exhausted.
Corrections are piling up and
she has some behaviour
management problems with
her class. The Assistant
Principal has just asked her
to go on a school camp next
week in the place of a sick
colleague.
Choose from:
• Roads and roundabouts
(Level 3-4)
• The daisy (Level 5-6)
• Tree change (Level 7-8)
Problem-Solving
REFLECT
• How do you respond to problems in your day-today life?
• How do you model collaborative problem-solving
within your classroom?
• What language do you use to assist your students
in developing their ability to articulate when they
have a problem?
6d. Problem-Solving
Useful Links
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Get Ready Drug Education Resources
https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/pages/
Catching On Early and Catching On Later (Sexuality education activities for primary and
secondary schools)
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/social/physed/pages/r
esources.aspx
Bully stoppers
www.education.vic.gov.au/about/.../bullystoppers/
Bullying. No way!
https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/secondary/pages/View.aspx?id..
Cybersmart
https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/pages/View.aspx?id=4e59b848...
Esmart Schools
https://www.esmartschools.org.au/Pages/default.aspx