Problem Solving with SCAMPER

One of the greatest difficulties students face is thinking outside of the box on their own.

Education has so handcuffed students into thinking the way the teacher wants, the book explains, the rubric directs or the directions instruct, that they have become incapable of striking out on their own for fear of being, OH MY GOSH!!! WRONG!!!!

Bob Eberle developed the SCAMPER system in 1982 to assist students in ways to creatively approach problem solving.

SCAMPER is an acronym of options students can call upon in their approach to solving problems by creative means when thinking outside the box and extending the boundaries is a necessary part of the process solution.

S - SUBSTITUE       What other material, process, method could we use instead?

C - COMBINE         What can we add, cluster or put together to change our perspective?

A - ADAPT               What can we change, adjust or do differently to fit the situation?

M - MODIFY           How can we alter or change the form or quality? Can we resize the form?

P - PUT TO USE      What else could this be used for? Where can this be valuable?

E - ELIMINATE      What could we remove or omit to change our perspective?

R - REVERSE          Could we deconstruct the information to understand the process?    

How many of us have witnessed that classroom where every students can follow directions and achieve the desired result? The classroom where 32 paper look exactly the same because each student can follow the designed algorithm and produce the expected end product?

But, can these same students think out side the box, without a rubric, without specified directions, without a known value as an outcome?  Can these students bring something to the table from another classroom, from a life experience or from another source and derive their own outcome?

It is imperative that the process of learning provide students the opportunity to problem solve free from expectation of producing an expected outcome.  To be able to experience the processes of due diligence necessary to produce an outcome, correct or otherwise.  A process that allows students to make mistakes without judgement, but encouragement to search out a better solution.  A learning environment that values that process as a means to an outcome but not the only outcome.

Allow students to SCAMPER.   

   

John Wooden's Expectations of Team Members

• Always be a gentleman.
• Always be a team player.
• Always be on time whenever time is involved.
• Always be learning.
• Always be enthusiastic, dependable and cooperative.
• Always be earning the right to be proud and confident.
• Always keep your emotions under control without losing fight or aggressiveness. 
• Be spirited, not temperamental.
• Always work to improve, knowing you can never improve enough. 

Although Coach Wooden presented these to his basketball teams more than three decades ago, these basic rules are a perfect set of expectations for educators to share with their students of how to act in both in and out of the classroom.  Each of us could model these as the bas

We are all called to be polite as we deal with each other, face to face or in groups.
As the acronym goes, Together Each Achieves More.
Being on time is a sign of respect toward those we will work with or work for.
The quote states, "Live as if you will die tomorrow, learn as if you will live forever."

We will all work with someone else in our lifetime, cooperation is an absolute must.

Our actions earn us the right to be proud.

Balance in our emotions is the key to understanding and respect.

We must believe in ourselves.

Never be satisfied, always strive to improve.

If we as educators could get our students to live out these basic guidelines in our classrooms and schools, how much better off would our students be as they face a world that is in a constant state of change?  How much easier would their transition be, into our adult world?  And, how effective would they be in their role as an adult, with co-workers, friends and family?

What Can We Do In Two Hours?

This, information was shared at a symposium I attended back in 2007.  I am sure some of the numbers have changed with the further growth of social networking, touch pads and smartphones.

We have about 150,000 hours of living to expend between the ages of 1 and 18.

We sleep about 50,000 hours of that time.  We dream about two hours of the eight that we sleep each night. Sleeping and dreaming appear to be positively related to development and maintenance of long term memories.

We spend about 65,000 hours of our 100,000 waking hours involved in solitary activities, and in direct relationships with family and friends, and these play a major role in the maintenance of personal memories.

We spend about 35,000 of our waking hours with our larger culture in formal and informal metaphoric/symbolic activities --- about 12,000 hours in school, and twice as much with various forms of mass media: computers, television, films, music, sports and non-school print media.  Mass media and school thus play major roles in the development of cultural memories.

Thus, in an average developmental day between the ages of 1 and 18, a young person sleeps 8 hours, spends 10 hours with family/friends/self, 4 (probably more) with mass media, leaving only 2 hours for school.

Our society has an incredible expectation for those two hours.  

The You Tube video "A Vision of Students Today" is an eye opener, when it comes to understanding the mindset of the students we teach each day.