Many people have asked me what does Wholistic Problem Solving look like in practice. 

When a student  comes to me, the first step in the process is developing what is called a Personal Business Plan (PBP). Using the PBP the student is brought into the process of setting goals and organizing a plan of action to achieve these goals. Students are introduced to Wholistic Problem Solving as a way to examine  their own process of goal setting, organization and achievement. Over time these steps will be used as a way to analyzed and address academic, social and behavioral problems, as well as personal goals the student sets for themselves. Through the process of learning a practical neurologically based problem solving technique and utilizing it to address problems across a wide verity of situations students develop a problem solving mindset that can counter act the deleterious effect of learned helpless that often accompanies learning disabilities. The student begins to realize the personal patters in their problem solving that are indicative of their learning style. Over time this knowledge is made real and practical as the student achieves the goals set for them in their PBP.

In form, this meta cognitive problem solving strategy is a functional representation of the 9 basic neurological processes utilized by the brain to solve problems. These processes, in turn, forms the core steps of the problem solving process. By turning the problem solving process back upon itself students learn more than just how to approach a problem, they learn how their brain functions in relation to the process of problem solving. This enables them to approach their own thinking in a self aware and practical way, learning to identify and balance their individual learning strengths and weaknesses. By comprehending a neurologically based learning disability in this way, self defeating and mal-adaptive assumptions can be addressed, interpreted and ameliorated through self understanding.

  As problems occur, or are discovered, they are placed on the student’s Personal Business Plan and run through the Wholistic Problem Solving model until a functional solution can be found. Over time their PBP becomes a record of their past difficulties and triumphs. At this point the document its self ,can be analyzed and reflected upon meta-cognitivly to develop what I call the students Personal Success Narrative. This is a short story, about the student themselves, that illustrates their success and how they achieved it.  With this narrative students begin to learn how to use their understanding of their own history to guide them through problems and identify meta-historical problems and behavior patters  that they may not have been aware of otherwise.  The student can begin to see their history as a stream of cause-and-effect relationships rather than a series of unconnected episodes. By further inserting a problem-solving focus to this historical understanding of self, students can become aware of their own personal pitfalls and discover the strategies that will work best for them to avoid these pitfalls.

On Wednesday, May 15 I will be doing a presentation entitled Parenting Problem Solving at 6:30 at the Bridge Center in Bridgewater. If you would like more information please feel free to contact me a [email protected].

Wholistic Problem Solving  works by breaking down the process of problem solving into its primary neurological parts and then directly teaching how these processes work to  a students. Through this I begin a dialogue, an interaction, with an individual about learning that promotes their learning. Ultimately, it puts learning into the control of the learner, so rather than waiting to be taught a concept, they can begin to try to figure out things on their own because they know the tools needed to attack a problem. This is particularly important for those with disabilities because frequently their impairment results in an inability to move smoothly through a problem solving routine.  Other times they simply do not apply a problem solving process to situations because they have never been directly taught to do so and often do not know where or how to begin.

THE MODEL

Today I am going to explain how I came up with the basic visual model of Wholistic Problem Solving. This visual model that I have created, which has become the unifying feature of both the dynamic and formal features of the program has evolved slowly over time from my experience working with students.

The model represents all the basic types of thinking that exist in relation to problem solving. This is much easier than it sounds. Primarily because I have been using various forms of a meta-cognitive modelling to communicate thinking to students for over 15 years.  In the beginning I had used the exact cognitive ladder model that I was introduced to by Joe Arsenault and Dr. Webb at Curry College's revered Program for the Advancement of Learning. Later, I began using a poster I received at an in-service that had the revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy on it.

However, the problem with both of these models was that they clearly had average functioning college educated individuals in mind when they were developed. I worked with neurologically impaired elementary and middle school students. To make such a conceptualization work for my students, I needed to added a few levels. Primarily these were lower levels. I realized my students needed to understand the most basic thinking structures of attention and sensory thinking, even more than high level structures like analyzing, because these areas were frequently the core areas their disability manifested.

When I first started working to develop a meta-cognitive program with students, my primary goal was finding ways to teach students, so that they could comprehend their own disabilities. The idea behind developing a visual structure was based on the need to streamline the presentation of information on these neurological structures of thinking so it could be better comprehended by school age children.

As I went back to organize and improve upon my meta-cognitive instruction I realized that what I was doing really something much different than what Bloom or Webb. Possibly due to the fact that I saw these taxonomic structures more as tools to promote thinking rather than simply explain thinking.  I was trying to both represent the functions of the mind and teach them as useful mechanisms at the same time. I was trying to develop in my students a functional theory of mind that they could use to help explain, to themselves, their own unique style of learning and comprehend the learning style of others.  Once developed, the student would possess both a systematic approach and a schema to break down and attack problems with the fullest force of their mind.

With this realization I renamed and rework each of the levels so that they would do exactly what I needed them to do in the classroom. I was now able to both teach and direct meta-cognitive thinking within a unified framework that could be related to all parts of the curriculum and personal experience. I used the expression of biological strengths and weaknesses to further isolate distinct thinking processes from the procedures and techniques used to express that type of thinking. In other words, if a thinking process could not be represented as having biological strengths and weaknesses then it was not a process, but rather a technique used by the process. This helped to clarify the structure and sub structure of the new system.

What is Wholistic Problem Solving?
—Wholistic problem solving is a meta-cognitive problem solving approach that directly teaches the neurological systems and processes utilized to solve problems so that an individual can better utilize their natural neurological skills to solve problems.

Over the coming weeks I am going to attempt to make regular posts to address questions about the system .  The first question I'd like to address is the name. No, it is not spelled wrong. The spelling is intentional. Since the approach involves thinking about problems from a meta-cognitive, whole brain, body and interpersonal perspective I have dubbed it Wholistic Problem Solving. I have chosen the word Wholistic because I wanted to draw parallels and connection between my program and the humanistic philosophies that form the core belief system of any educator who believes in educating the Whole Child. I am also aware that Wholistic is not technically a word, but I felt it truly expresses my particular slant on the understanding, education and my disability. The word ‘whole’ means everything, a total being. The word ‘hole’ means a dug out part of the ground. To me the word Wholistic, is derived from the word whole. To me that means that my method seeks to impart a total understanding of everything that is involved in problem solving. The word Holistic looks like it is derived from the word ‘hole’. Though I know it is not, my dyslexic mind cannot wrap it’s self around why it would be written in a way that seems to mean derived from a process of making holes? So when I first wrote out the name, I guess you could say I spelt it wrong, but I like my misspelling better than the word that is actually in use right now. Regardless, I was excited that I could give my unique program a unique name.