Session 5:

Problem-Solving
and
Working with Parents
 RATE YOUR STRESS LEVEL

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Stress management
exercise: Five Finger
Breathing
 Review of Key Points

1. Each student is an individual, with a

unique home environment,
temperament, and way of learning.
2. The effective teacher looks at the
conflict as a difference in the needs of
the learner and the teacher.
3. When we approach conflict as a
problem to be solved, we strengthen
relationships, build trust, and model
valuable skills.
 True or False
1. Short-term goals are always in contradiction to
long-term goals.
2. It is more important to provide Structure than
Warmth.
3. Understanding children’s perspective leads to
greater understanding of children’s needs.
4. It is more important to provide Warmth than
Structure.
5. The Covid-19 pandemic has little effect on young
children because they still don’t understand
what is going on around them.
 Problem
Solving The approach to obstacles,
challenges and frustrations
The PDET Model
Recognizing individual
differences
Knowing the materials
Understanding child
development

Providing Providing
The tools
Warmth Structure

Setting long-term
The plan
goals
Problem – Solving Approach
1. Rate your stress level; reconnect your
thinking and emotional brain if needed
2. State the problem without judging or
blaming – focus only on the facts
3. Think about reasons for the child’s
behavior
4. Think about your long-term goals
5. Provide Warmth and Structure

This is problem solving.

This is Positive Discipline!
 What is Warmth?

Ensuring that
Respecting
the students Being sensitive Having Showing
students’
feel to students’ empathy with students that
developmental
emotionally academic and students’ you care about
levels and
and physically social needs feelings them
views
safe
 What is Structure?

Providing Encouraging
Giving clear Supporting
Being a opportunities students’ Problem
information and helping
positive role for students own solving
and students to
model to fix their thoughts and together
explanations succeed
mistakes ideas
 24
Practice!

It has been one month since the

beginning of the school year but your
female kindergarten learner can only
finish 20% of the work sheets she is
required to finish at the end of each week
because she can only sit at her desk at
home for a few minutes at a time.
Are your thinking brain
and feeling brain well
connected?
If not, take a moment
to reconnect.
 Consider…

✓How children think in this stage

✓How children understand emotions in this stage
✓Physical development (brain and body) in this stage
✓The child’s temperament
✓Specific learning challenges
✓Information processing challenges
✓Other individual differences
What are your long-
term goals?
 Do your suggestions
How could you provide
meet the definitions Do they respect the
Warmth and Structure
of Warmth and learner’s rights?
in this situation?
Structure?
Your Turn!
 25

Imagine this…

Your Grade 2 male learner usually turns in

clean and accurate work in his Math
modules every week. However, this
week, you find that his work has
significantly deteriorated. You find out
that his father was recently taken to a
COVID-19 quarantine facility.
Are your thinking brain
and feeling brain well
connected?
If not, take a moment
to reconnect.
 Write down all the
reasons you can think of
for why a learner would
behave this way.
Consider…
✓How children think in this stage
✓How children understand emotions in
this stage
✓Physical development (brain and body)
in this stage
✓The child’s temperament
✓Specific learning challenges
✓Sensory or language difficulties
✓Other individual differences
What are your long-
term goals?
 How could you Do your suggestions
provide Warmth and meet the definitions Do they respect the
Structure in this of Warmth and learner’s rights?
situation? Structure?
 Imagine this… 26

You are conducting your online class for

Grade 8 learners, who are currently doing
a short exercise. Some of your learners
have finished early and you notice that the
comment box is very active with
messages, with one female learner using
harsh and hurtful language directed to
another female learner.
 27
Imagine this…

Your Grade 12 male learner has texted you

that he will not be able to submit the weekly
modular lessons this week. When you ask
why, the learner said that he has recently
gotten a home-based job sewing cloth face
masks. The job requires him to meet a certain
number of pieces per day. He says he wants
to complete Grade 12 but there is just too
much to do.
 Engaging Students in Problem Solving
1. Check that you are calm and that your thinking brain and emotional
brain are well connected. If not, take a moment to reconnect.
2. State the problem, without judging or blaming.
3. Listen to the student’s point of view.
4. Paraphrase the student’s point of view and acknowledge the
student’s feelings.
5. Express your point of view.
6. Brainstorm solutions together
7. Evaluate if the identified solutions are working or not
8. In working with a group of learners, guide them to brainstorming
solutions together as a class (where it’s appropriate)
 Questions
and Answers
 Support for Parents:
Problem-solving with Parents

• Teachers have the opportunity to model the

problem-solving process when talking to
parents such as during delivery and pick-up of
modular lessons or when a learner is
experiencing difficulties
• Remember to be calm, with your thinking and
emotional brain connected
• Remember that you and the parent are
working towards a common goal
Create a positive environment

• Show your love to your children

• Make time for activities you enjoy together
• Provide comfort when the child is
experiencing fear, anxiety, and frustration
• Emphasize effort rather than ability – show
that you value the child’s effort no matter the
outcome
• Recognize the child’s talents and initiatives
• Provide a well-lighted, well-ventilated, and
comfortable space for the child to study
 Communicate Often and Regularly

• Talk and listen to your children – engage

in conversation (not instruction or
command)
• Express your appreciation for something
the child did well around the house
• Say or do something to encourage
children when they are having difficulty
with school
• Discuss and set academic and life goals
 Create a daily routine

• Allocate enough time for personal hygiene,

household chores, school work, leisure,
and family time
• Teach stress monitoring and stress
management activities: deep breathing and
movement
• Do not punish children when they have
difficulties or exhibit lack of motivation for
school work
• Seek community resources for tutorials
Summing Up

• Everyone can be a problem-solver.

• Problem-solving is a learned skill; when we model and teach problem
solving process in the early grades, they will learn to use it as they get
older.
• Involving students in problem-solving helps them build skills in conflict
resolution; these skills will be useful throughout their lives
• Joint problem – solving respects the student’s rights to participation in
decision making
• Children learn more from this process than from being punished
Summing Up

• Teachers have the opportunity to help parents support their

children’s education through the Positive Discipline approach.
• Teachers can help parents in stress management.
• Teachers can model Warmth, Structure, and Empathy to parents.
• Teachers can help parents practice Warmth and provide Structure
to their children as they participate in blended learning.
 Problem
Solving The approach to obstacles,
challenges and frustrations
The PDET Model
Recognizing individual
differences
Knowing the materials
Understanding child
development

Providing Providing The tools

Warmth Structure

Setting long-term
The plan
goals
 What is Warmth?

Ensuring that
Respecting
the students Being sensitive Having Showing
students’
feel to students’ empathy with students that
developmental
emotionally academic and students’ you care about
levels and
and physically social needs feelings them
views
safe
 What is Structure?

Providing Encouraging
Giving clear Supporting
Being a opportunities students’ Problem
information and helping
positive role for students own solving
and students to
model to fix their thoughts and together
explanations succeed
mistakes ideas
Post Program Questionnaire
https://tinyurl.com/PDET20post
Thank You!
“I did then what
I knew how to do. Now
what I know better, I do
better.”
- Maya Angelou
 Good Luck!
For support, you can contact:
Wilma Bañaga: Wilma.Banaga@savethechildren.org
Jerly Villanada: Jerly.Villanada@savethechildren.org
PDET Facilitators

facebook.com/groups/IPracticePositiveDiscipline