Ø It’s not about programs… it’s about solutions!
Ø It’s not about our problems… it’s about discovering and growing our strengths.
Ø It’s not about what you do wrong… it’s about what you do right.
Ø It’s not about doing it a certain way… it’s about finding the way that works.
Ø It’s not about going it alone… it’s about working and celebrating together.
Ø It’s not about focusing on the past… it’s about looking to the future.
Ø It’s not about "youth at risk"… it’s about "youth of promise!"
Assumptions of Solution Focused Practice:
Solution Driven:
The purpose of the conversation is to discover clues to a possible course of action that will reduce the impact of a difficulty. A small change in any aspect of the difficulty can create a solution. Complex problems do not need complex solutions, nor is there a logical connection between the problem and the solution. Successful solutions are conceived in terms of taking new action rather than stopping old behaviors.
Asset Based:
Students, teachers, and parents have the strengths and abilities to change school difficulties. Any goal must be developed by the person experiencing the difficulty. Recognizing and affirming the student’s competence and ability to change is highly motivating.
Focus Shift:
Concentration on future possibilities supports change. Insight into the nature of the problem is not necessary for building solutions. There is always an exception to the difficulty, a time or place when the problem was less or even absent. In a school setting, the emphasis is upon solutions that enhance personal development, academic success and progress toward graduation.
Experimental Action:
Change is going to happen. There is no one correct course of action toward building a solution. There are many possible meanings and ways to understand any given behavior; therefore, if one view is not working, try another. If it works do more of it; if it doesn’t work, do something else.
Practice Principles for Solution Focused Schools
Strong interpersonal and relationship skills of school personnel. Each school staff focuses on building warm, supportive and affirming relationships with every student. Students are personally known by each teacher and staff member.
Start where the student is in relationship to their academic skills, learning style and personal needs.
School culture is built around a strengths orientation focusing on building a community of empowered learners.
The school culture promotes the idea that behavior or "doing" is the key to success in school and in life.
Positive words and compliments are seen as important for helping students achieve their academic and life goals.
The school has a future orientation. School personnel emphasize what students can do next to achieve and improve themselves.
The school culture facilitates beliefs in choice and self-determination.
The school culture of the solution-focused school fosters responsibility for self and others.
Teaching and learning is done in a collaborative manner.
Faculty and staff focus on building motivation and confidence in learning and achievement. The natural capacities of students are used to help them to want to excel.
Goal setting and a task orientation are pivotal to the schools’ instructional practices.
Small increments of change are valued and praised by faculty. Students can progress as fast or slow as needed. Instructional practices are self-paced, and individualized.
The staff helps students to notice their positive progress and plan for additional progress through the use of scaling questions or other self-evaluative tools. For example, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being you have completely reached your goal of coming to school to finish your science project? Where are you today? If the student says a "5", the school staff says. "That’s great! How can you get to a 6."
The school staff uses the Miracle Question or other hypothetical/pretend questions that evoke positive imagery and promote the trying out new behaviors. They ask the Miracle question, for example, "Let’s just suppose that you go home from school tonight and, while you were sleeping, a miracle happens, and these difficulties that you are having in completing your school credits in math disappear. When you woke-up in the morning, what would be the first thing that you notice about your life that would be different? Staff may also ask the pretend question; "Let’s just suppose that you did know how to do math for a moment. How might that change what you are doing in school?"
Faculty and staff help students build confidence by solution building. Faculty lead students through the steps of solution building and help them master the cognitive and behavioral skills needed to solution build.
References:
De Shazer, S., Berg, I.K., Lipchik, E., Nunnally, E., Molnar, A., Gingerich, W., Weiner-Davis, M. (1986). Brief therapy: Focused solution development. Family Process, 25 (2), 207-221.
Franklin, C., Streeter, C.L., Garner, J., Kim, J.S., & Hopson, L.M. (2003). Solution-focused accountability schools for the 21st century: A treatment manual for Gonzolo Garza Independence High School. University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work.
For more on Solution-Focused Practices, please visit http://www.sfbta.org/
[1] Solution-focused practice has its roots in “Solution-Focused Brief Therapy,” developed by Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg and their colleagues (de Shazer et al., 1986).