3 Techniques that facilitates Problem Solving Activities in Schools

Some of the techniques which facilitate problem-solving are as follows:

(a) Brain-storming:

This technique was made popular in the 1950s and is mainly used for generating ideas during the process of decision-making. It is aimed at solving problems that are new to the institution and have major consequences.

Brain-storming is a technique wherein the group convenes specifically to generate ideas and alternatives. Ideas are presented and clarified with brief explanation by the members.

Each idea is recorded on a flip chart in front of all members. However, no idea is evaluated even if the ideas seem risky or impossible to implement. In the next session, the alternatives are evaluated.

Image Source: chooselifeatsimpsonhouse.files.wordpress.com

The aim of brain-storming is to produce totally new ideas and solutions by stimulating the creativity of group members and encouraging them to build on the contributions of others.

Principles of brain-storming are:

(1) Defer evaluation during the phase of producing ideas, especially, negative or critical evaluation.

(2) Quantity begets quality. The more ideas are generated, the higher the probability of hitting upon some ne.w, brilliant ones.

(3) The more fantastic the ideas, the better. A fantastic idea here is one which does not seem to be practical at all. But it serves the important function of demolishing conventional patterns of thinking. Sometimes such impracticable ideas trigger other novel and useful ideas.

(4) Hitch-hike on previously expressed ideas. There is no reason to feel ashamed in building on others’ ideas or one’s own earlier ideas.

(b) The Delphi Technique:

This technique was originally developed by Rand Corporation as a method of systematically collecting judgments of experts for use in developing forecasts. It is designed for groups that do not meet face-to-face.

The manager who wants the inputs of a group is the central figure in the process that develops a questionnaire which is relatively simple in nature containing straightforward questions that deal with issues, trends, demands, opinions etc.

Through such a questionnaire, the manager gathers data, summarizes the responses and reports back to the experts with another questionnaire. This cycle may be repeated as many times as required to generate necessary information.

This technique is useful when experts are physically dispersed, anonymity is desired or the participants are known to have problems in communicating with each other due to extreme differences of opinions. This technique also avoids the intimidation problems that may arise in face-to-face decision-making but at the same time it eliminates the fruitful results of direct interaction among group members.

(c) The Nominal Group Technique:

This is a means of improving group decision-making. Whereas brain-storming is used mainly for generating ideas and alternatives, this technique may be used in other phases of decision-making such as identification of the problem and selecting appropriate criteria for evaluating alternatives.

Here, the issue is presented to the group and each individual writes a list of ideas but no discussion is allowed among group members. After a five-to-ten minute’s period of generating ideas, individual members, by turns report their ideas to the group.

The ideas are reported on a flip chart and members are encouraged to build on other people’s ideas and add to the list.

After presenting all the ideas, the members discuss them and continue to build on them this can be done by mail, telephone or computer but if done in a face-to-face meeting, members can develop a group feeling and use interpersonal stations with other members so that they put in their best in developing their lists.

After the discussion, members privately rank the ideas or express their preferences or vote for ideas. Therefore, the group may discuss the results and the ideas.

This technique helps in overcoming the negative effects of power and status differences among group members, it can be used to explore problems, to generate alternatives or evaluate them. However, it has a structured nature which restricts creativity.

The following questions can be useful in problem-solving whatever technique one may use for problem-solving:

(1) What can we add to the inputs or processes to improve them?

(2) What can we eliminate or delete from inputs or processes so as to avoid damaging them?

(3) How can we alter inputs/processes/outputs?

(4) Can we rearrange various components of the system?

(5) Are there any new uses of the resources?

(6) Are there any new methodologies of teaching and/or evaluation?

(7) Are there any alternative ways of attaining the goals?