When do things fall through the cracks at schools? When we fail to review.

Reflect on your teaching history. Can you think of an example of a time when you thought everything was going well and put off a review, only to have small cracks lead to a crumbling façade?

Is there a time when scheduling a review helped or hindered you?

How do you feel you could reflect on the CPS process? What aspect did you find challenging? Were these difficulties similar to those of your peers?

Remember to set a time for reviewing and monitoring to ensure the intervention is effective.​ Reflection is essential, and if we do not set aside time for it in the busyness of teaching, we often forget or simply assume that there are no issues until tiny flaws become noticeably large.

Make a time for you, the young person and their support network to sit down and review your intervention. Add it to your plan and stick with it.

If you have concerns about the interventions or are unsure if they will work, set a shorter timeframe for review. If you are confident in your solution, allow a few weeks to see how it works in action.

This is an incremental process. We are not miracle workers, and CPS is not a panacea for all behaviour issues.​ CPS offers a new lens to look at behaviour through. It will take time and effort, and there will be failures. What is important is that we persist and work with the young person to discover where the shortcomings have been and solve them as a team.

Finally, I want to leave you with these two thoughts:

1. The best solutions are built off the backs of past solutions.​ Iteration is what works. It is unlikely that we can solve all issues on the first attempt, but if we continue to work at a solution and build on past failures authentically, we will eventually get to a solution that works for all stakeholders.

2. The CPS process is about indirectly teaching lagging skills, so there is no harm in revisiting the process multiple times for the one unsolved problem. Every time you and a young person participate in the CPS process, you develop empathy, expression, planning and negotiation skills.

This MOOC covers only one version of the application of CPS. I encourage you to seek additional examples and applications to suit your particular needs and contexts. You may consider researching Dr Ross Greene, the originator of this method, as he has many resources and videos on its application that will improve your expertise and familiarity with this process.

Set aside time to discuss this process with peers, young people and their families. Ask questions and find out how to make this process suit your context more organically.

Using the tool above, reflect on implementing CPS and how effective you felt in this process.

Set aside a time for review and reflection with the young person and record it on the problem-solving plan.

I encourage you to write your reflections in a journal or Word document using these guiding questions:

CPS is an ongoing process. How have you planned to review and maintain your solutions?

What is the plan for when communication or the proposed solution breaks down?

Who is your support person/are your support people when everything breaks down?

Now that you have tested the process, which students do you think may benefit from the application of CPS?