Untangling complex issuesUsing scaling to support and measurethe impact of helping conversations

Solent Learning and TeachingCommunity ConferenceWorkshop: 24 June 2016

David WhistanceEmployability and Enterprise Programme Adviserdavid.whistance@solent.ac.uk

Employability and Enterprise | http://about.me/ssugetajob

Today’s workshop

Background (10 minutes)• Two videos

o Careers guidance pilot projecto Scaling walk through: student case study

Practical (30 minutes)• Work in pairs• Open forum

A bit of interdisciplinary mingling

‘All psychotherapies are methods of learning.’

Corsini (2008, 6)

Counselling Careers guidance

Learning & teaching

Underpinning theories

Scaling: Its roots in solutionfocussed brief therapye.g. Berg and de Shazer (1993)

Evaluation: Integration into sessionscan make helping more effectivee.g. Miller et al (2004)

Techniques: Strongly influenced by relational and client factorse.g. Egan (2013) and Lambert et al (1986)

How and why: Careers guidance project

https://youtu.be/kdCJ6AHcWPgPilot at Southampton Solent University explored in Whistance (2014)

Walk through: Student case study

https://youtu.be/Uqi3FjDf2jw

A trust-based reflection space?

This is a complex issue where you both invest considerable time and effort

Explore RateIssue:Before and after

Conversation: Usefulness

ExploreWhat makes you X not Y?What do you need to do to move up 1 point?I’m interested...I’m surprised...

Practice

Scaling

Helping foundationsTopic

In pairs(15ish minutes)

4 mins: Explore issue2 mins: ScalingSwap roles and repeat3 mins: Debrief

Enjoyable but some complexity / confusion• My all expenses paid, dream holiday• My interview with an historical figure

Listen as actively and deeply as you canGentle nudges to facilitate exploration

Name issue (facilitatee’s words)Scale issue: Before and afterRate usefulnessQualitative quotes: Reflect back / seek out

Your experiences

Previous workshop

“This is freaking me out! What if I ask a student about the usefulness of what we’ve done and they give a low score. How awkward is that!”• Yes, this is a difficult situation. However, it is also an opportunity to re-engage

with exploring the student’s issue. Remember this approach prioritises having meaningful, learning-filled encounters over getting high evaluation scores.

“I can see how this works in your setting but I don’t think it would meet our needs.”• This is one evaluation and facilitating tool. As you say, it may not be right for

you.• There are some situations where it’s not useful. For example, if there has been

some really straightforward information giving or signposting that has clearly met a student’s needs, using this approach would be complete overkill.

“What if people do the scaling in different ways? How valid would it be?”• There may be issues about the psychometrics. It would be good to explore this.• One of the things that makes us think this approach has reasonable face

validity is that a small but significant proportion of students say that their interaction has been really useful and this sometimes surprises us quite a lot. Maybe this is an indicator that the approach helps to calibrate our expectations or interpretations of what the helping process is like for people.

Georgia’s experience

“Would you like to say anything about the scaling process?”“What about the usefulness question?”“Did the scaling process seem a bolt on exercise?”“Is there anything else you’d like to say?”

“If I’d done a questionnaire you probably wouldn’t know why I gave the scores I did.”

“No, until you contacted me to talk about my helping out at the workshop, I thought it was just a normal part of a careers appointment. It just felt normal and natural.”

“I quite liked this as it showed me you were concerned with how I had found our session.”

“Helped with my goal setting. I knew what I needed to do but was confused. I had a feeling of where I was and this became clearer as we talked about it more. Yes, it made things clearer for me.”

What would you need to do to move from X to

X+1?

What makes you X rather

than Y?

I’m… Surprised…Interested…Confused…

Complex issues

Some trust establishe

d

Reflection space

Summary

References

Berg, I.K. and de Shazer, S., 1993. Making numbers talk: Language in therapy. In Friedman, S. (Ed.), The New Language of Change: Constructive Collaboration in Psychotherapy.New York: Guildford Press.

Corsini, R.J. and Wedding, D., 2008. Current Psychotherapies. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Egan, G., 2013. The Skilled Helper: A Problem-Management and Opportunity-Development Approach to Helping (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Lambert, M.J., Shapiro D.A. and Bergin, A.E., 1986. The effectiveness of psychotherapy.In Garfield, S.L. and Bergin, A.E. (Eds.), Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change (3rd ed., 157-212). New York: Wiley.

Miller, S.D., Duncan, B.L. and Hubble, M.A., 2004. Beyond integration: The triumph of outcome over process in clinical practice. Psychotherapy in Australia, 10(2), 2-19. Available from: www.scottdmiller.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/BeyondIntegration.pdf

Whistance, D., 2014. Guidance by numbers: A student-centred approach to evaluating the impact of careers guidance. Phoenix, October, 22-23.Available from: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/e830b7ab#/e830b7ab/24

Part of your learning and teaching toolkit?

‘Making numbers

talk’Berg and de Shazer (1993)