From helping students address lingering learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic to navigating workplace environments shaped by teacher shortages, educational leaders have no lack of challenges to address every day. Given those factors, it’s not a surprise that hiring managers seek educators who can creatively tackle complex issues.
Nearly 90% of employers are seeking candidates with resumes that reflects their ability to solve problems, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Job Outlook 2024 survey. Close to 80% are also searching for staff who can work collaboratively in teams — another key element of problem-solving in educational environments.
Graduates of William Paterson University’s online Master of Education (MEd) in Educational Leadership program have the tools needed to confidently address obstacles that arise in the workplace, from classroom environments to inside an administrator’s office.
What Is Creative Problem-Solving?
Thanks to the nature of their jobs, which involves on-the-fly responses and adjustments to student needs, teachers are natural creative problem-solvers, according to The Forage. The Creative Education Foundation — which champions the four-stage creative problem-solving process — posits that everyone is creative in some way and that individuals are capable of learning and enhancing their creative skills.
Based upon those assumptions, the foundation asks educators to divide the creative problem-solving process into two buckets. One side is the divergent thinking phase, which involves brainstorming with others and moving beyond traditional ideas to find new, experimental concepts. The other side is convergent thinking: sorting through the brainstormed ideas and converting them into actionable solutions through a process of evaluation and refinement.
Educators must complete a four-phase process to become creative problem-solvers. The first stage is clarification, which involves exploring different visions, gathering data to see if those ideas have previously worked and gaining a greater understanding of the challenge at hand. From there, educators can begin brainstorming ideas — known as the “ideation” phase — before moving to “develop” the solutions that best address the given scenario.
Finally, educator teams formulate a plan in the “implementation” phase to generate buy-in from those affected by the problem. In this stage, educators determine the timing, resources and personnel necessary to implement a solution. This process not only helps educators solve workplace problems but also teaches students how to brainstorm and carry out their own action plans.
Discovering Problem-solving Strategies for Educators
As educators strive to achieve the goals laid out by the creative problem-solving process, they have many different options when it comes to brainstorming, evaluating and implementing solutions. For the divergent thinking process, one tool is as simple as it sounds: facilitating a brainstorming session that allows fellow educators to generate as many ideas as possible. According to Innovative Teaching Ideas, educators should consider setting word limits for each idea and challenging the room to express their thoughts in a short, “headline” format on Post-It notes. From there, each group member can share their ideas and consolidate them onto one list.
Another divergent thinking tool is asking participants to outline the who, what, where, why and how of a problem to gather data about the issue and deepen their understanding of the topic. Teachers may also choose to conduct the “reverse assumption” activity, where participants come up with a list of up to 10 basic assumptions about the problem and then explore the opposite of that perspective.
For instance, one issue facing educators is the ability to keep students engaged when they have technology at their fingertips with laptops and cell phones. An educator could write down an assumption: “Screen time is taking away from a student’s comprehension of the subject.” The opposite of that assumption could be: “Screen time could enhance a student’s comprehension of the material.”
On the convergent thinking side, educators should consider creating “how-how diagrams” to write a solution on the left side of the page, then listing the individual steps required to achieve the solution to the right. This structure allows leaders to conceive of how many actions it will take to effectively carry out their desired outcome, according to Innovative Teaching Ideas.
In addition, educators can use an evaluation matrix to list the necessary criteria for a potential solution. If a solution needs to come within a certain budget, leaders can ask: Does the proposed solution meet our
Developing Problem-solving Skills With William Paterson University’s Online MEd Program
As part of William Paterson’s online MEd in Educational Leadership program, students apply these skills in their coursework. The course titled Curriculum Design: Developing, Writing, and Implementing Curriculum in the Classroom allows students to analyze, evaluate and apply current theories in curriculum design. Upon graduation, educators understand what it takes to step into school leadership roles and promote the success of each student.
Learn more about William Paterson University’s online MEd in Educational Leadership program.
