ESE 633 Week 5 Assignment Collaborative Problem Solving

Providing tools for academic success to students with disabilities is a collaborative effort. Sometimes however, individuals within the collaborative team face conflict due to a strong emotional or professional investment from a particular member. Examples of education-based conflict include disagreements over the allocation of limited resources and funding, differing curriculum delivery methods, class behavior management styles, misinterpreted conversations (due to cultural differences, communication styles, personal or professional backgrounds, and other differences), and misunderstanding of professional roles, school policy, and other school or district-based guidelines. Chapter 9 in your Murawski and Spencer (2011) text outlines the causes of conflict and how to problem-solve through negotiation strategies with peers and in a collaborative team setting.

Instructions:

Content
The collaboration steps, as defined by Windle and Warren’s (n.d.) Collaborative Problem Solving: Steps in the Process, are listed below. Use the headings named in this section within your paper.

Before the Meeting – Interests and Options (1 point): Windle and Warren (n.d.) suggest that interests are the “underlying need, want, or desire that we are trying to satisfy with our position (solution)” Consider that statement, then:
Identify each team member’s interest in Lily’s post-graduation goals, including options that may be available given each team member’s point of view.

Lily Case Study

Lily was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at age eight when she started displaying ”typical behaviors” including misunderstanding social cues with girls her age, perseverating on Sponge Bob cartoons, and holding her ears every time a bell would ring to change classes. She has always been educated in an inclusive general classroom using the collaborative consultation model, receiving pull-out SLP (Speech & Language Pathologist) services where she learned social skills and how to communicate with peers. Lily’s teacher says that she loves writing stories about her favorite cartoons and has always loved Sponge Bob. She is an outstanding artist and works well independently because she gets overwhelmed very easily in a group. Her least favorite subject is social studies as she has a very difficult time understanding past events as the concepts are too abstract.

Now that she has turned 16, Lily’s transition team is meeting for the first time to discuss a post-graduation plan. They need to set realistic goals, discuss interest inventories, and evaluate Lily’s options. Included in this meeting is the lead special education coordinator, Lily’s mother and father (who are divorced), the general educator, the school psychologist, and the speech and language pathologist. Her past IEP meetings have been very challenging; although everyone has her best interest at heart, they have differing opinions of how “best interest” is defined. Lily’s parents want her to go to a 4-year college with a focus on computer animation. The special education coordinator supports Lily’s wish to work at a daycare center as an assistant, because she really enjoys children and doesn’t feel her usual social anxiety around them. The general educator and speech and language pathologist at this school don’t know her well enough to provide post-graduation input. The school psychologist says that Lily’s interest inventory identifies that her area of strength is in an engineering field working independently with concrete concepts.