Measuring the Process and Outcomes of Team Problem Solving

Abstract

Although there is a strong legislative base and perceived efficacy for multidisciplinary team decision making, limited evidence supports its effectiveness or consistency of implementation in practice. In recent research, we used the Decision Observation, Recording, and Analysis (DORA) tool to document activities and adult behaviors during positive behavior support team meetings. In this study, we revised the DORA to provide evidence of the extent to which the solutions that teams developed were implemented with fidelity and associated with improvements in student behavior. Using trained observers, we documented decision making at 18 meetings in 10 schools where team members discussed a total of 44 problems. We found that scores on the Decision Observation, Recording, and Analysis–II (DORA-II) were acceptable indicators for documenting problem solving during team meetings and that they provided technically adequate information on the extent to which teams were assessing whether they had implemented a solution and whether the solution made a difference for students. We believe the revised assessment tool has value in studying team-based problem solving, and we discuss our findings as a base for a well-reasoned research agenda for moving the process forward as evidence-based practice.