Denise Krause, Susan Green, and Maria Picone //Creating a positive, solution focused approach in the classroom

This skills workshop demonstrates how university educators can utilize solution focused techniques in the classroom to engage students in the learning process by being student centered while maintaining their commitment to course objectives. Solution focused instruction techniques emphasize students' strengths and helps to amply their successes. The instructor utilizes the approach to gauge a class's experience, skill and readiness in relation to course content. A solution orientation also assists students to maximize their learning potential by establishing goals and academic priorities based on self assessments. Solution focused pedagogy anchors the delivery of this skills building workshop. The session begins with a brief conceptual explanation of the approach. The traditional teaching paradigm is compared with the solution focused paradigm to introduce the concepts.. Once these conceptual elements are addressed, the workshop makes explicit a number of solution focused classroom skills.

Conventional solution focused skills including exception, scaling, and the miracle questions (deShazer, 1985; deShazer et al 1986; Berg, 1994; & DeJong & Berg, 2006) are applied in the classroom setting. Several examples both from the instructor's and participants' own experience are shared. Building on these, unique techniques for educational venues are explained with examples. An emphasis here is placed on the instructor's self assessment using the same techniques. Participants are encouraged to actively engage with the skills through exercises, examples, and questions. The presenter discusses how additional components of a course including readings and assignments are considered within a solution focused orientation to social work education.

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