The Principles of Strengths-Based Education

“…actually can undermine future performance because affirming students’ traits alone not only leads to a fixed mindset, but also to an ultimate decline in motivation if students are not also taught to be mindful of the importance of effort in producing positive outcomes (Mueller & Dweck, 1998).”

“Brief interventions can influence mindset (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; Kamins & Dweck, 1999).”

“Subsequently, the approach has been applied to support individuals across educational, workplace, and clinical settings (e.g., Harzer & Ruch, 2013; Lopez & Louis, 2009; J. J. Murphy & Sparks, 2018; Norrish et al., 2013; Padesky & Mooney, 2012).”

“A strengths-based approach to education is a general philosophy of teaching and learning that “represents a return to basic educational principles that emphasize the positive aspects of student effort and achievement, as well as human strengths” (Lopez & Louis, 2009, p. 1).”

“…and instructional designers to develop strengths-based adaptive systems to empower students in long-term and transferable behavioral, cognitive, and metacognitive development, such as experiential learning activities, scaffolding, and feedforward comments (Celik et al., 2022; Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“…can be mobilised to enable flourishing rather merely surviving, and capitalising on strengths is believed to be more likely to succeed than similar effort expended on overcoming weaknesses (Lopez & Louis, 2009) – but the basic process of enculturating individuals within the system remains the same.”

“…students can learn to appreciate the differences in others, value collaboration and teamwork by understanding the unique contributions of each team member’s strengths, and establish a sense of relatedness with others that is wrapped in the positive framework of strengths (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“The philosophy of strengths-based education—and the application of SQ—are clearly documented in the scholarly literature on college student character and development, including two articles in the Journal of College and Character (Bowers & Lopez, 2010; Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“…process (Schreiner & Louis, 2011); Academic Determination is comprised of goal-directedness (Snyder, 1995), management of time and resources (Ryff & Keyes, 1995), self-regulated learning (Pintrich, 2004), and the ability to apply one’s strengths to academic challenges (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“Third, the heavy skew of male autistic students in the selected studies may have limited the holistic understanding of strengths-based approaches that benefit all autistic students.”

“…Clifton StrengthsFinder and Gallup’s allied definitions of key terms such as strength were selected for use because of the prevalent and rapidly increasing use of this particular assessment as a component of strengths interventions in myriad postsecondary educational settings (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“The Australian Curriculum proposition of a strengths based approach builds strongly on influences from salutogenic health theory, emphasising positive aspects of student effort, achievement and human strengths (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“For example, Lopez and Louis (2009) proposed five foundations of a strengths-based education.”

“…by providing opportunities to name and act on their own strengths (Brownlee, Rawana & McArthur, 2012) making learning choices and setting strengths-based goals (Lopez & Louis, 2009); and gain a sense of relatedness by working with others on various strengths-related tasks (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“…including five principle components: (a) the measurement of strengths, (b) personalization of learning experiences in light of students ’ strengths, (c) affirmation of strengths with others, (d) deliberate application of strengths, and (e) intentional development of strengths (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“Similar criticisms might be leveled at “strengths-based education” (SBE) approaches currently being widely advocated and applied in formal education around the world (see Lopez & Louis, 2009; Resilience Initiatives, 2011).”

“During the early 2000s, scholars and practitioners were conducting strengths-based research (e.g., Hodges & Harter, 2005; Schreiner, 2006) and developing lesson plans, curricula, and exercises for this group of students (e.g., Lopez & Louis, 2009; Stebleton, Storia, & Albecker, 2012).”

“Anderson (2005) and Lopez and Louis (2009) posit that students inherently possess talents and strengths that educators should foster through the discovery and implementation of appropriate learning activities.”

“Strength-based teaching approaches include fostering personalized learning experiences, encouraging the development of nursing student networks and mentorship opportunities, and finding opportunities for students to apply their strengths within and outside the learning environment.(35)”

“Although recent theoretical work (Lopez & Louis, 2009) and intervention studies (Cantwell, 2005; Louis, 2008) have advanced our understanding of the strengths development program, psychologists know little about a student’s strengths development experience.”

“Several million college students have taken the StrengthsFinder® assessment to learn their top 5 talent themes (known colloquially as “top five strengths”; Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“Strengths-based approaches, on the other hand, attempt to identify “what is right” with students rather than diagnosing “what is wrong” (Lopez & Louis, 2009; Shushok & Hulme, 2006; Stebleton, Soria, & Albecker, 2012).”

“As Lopez and Louis (2009) describe, a strengths-based educational approach “is best understood as a philosophical stance and daily practice that shapes how an individual engages the teaching and learning process. Strengths-based educational models represent a return to basic educational principles that emphasize the p…”

“When implemented in tandem with the tenets of Universal Design, the strengths based approach allows for alternative modes of measurement and provides aspects of individualization [19].”

“Under a strengths-based model, competence, abilities, and skills that the individual brings to the learning process are the focus, rather than an individual’s deficits (Braun, Dunn, & Tomchek, 2017; Lopez & Louis, 2009; Smith, 2016; Steiner, 2010).”

“Strength-based approaches enable students to focus and apply their best qualities to learning, thereby increasing the likelihood of academic success (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“Strengths-based approaches, focus on harnessing a child’s unique skills, abilities and strengths, promoting learning rather than focusing solely on deficits, or what a child cannot do (35, 36).”

“ARTICLE HISTORY Received 22 September 2014 Revised 1 December 2015 Character strengths represent affective, behavioral, and cognitive capacities to “flourish” (e.g., Lopez & Louis, 2009; Niemiec, Rashid, & Spinella, 2012).”

“In fact, from a strengths perspective, existing character education programs can be conceptualized largely in terms of encouraging the increased recognition and use of certain types of strengths (Lopez and Louis, 2009).”

“This approach is consistent with a strengthsbased philosophy of “empowering individuals to flourish” (Lopez & Louis, 2009, p. 2), since it is well established that these foundational oral language skills are critical to early reading and writing success, which in turn is predictive of later reading…”

“This distinction is also well grounded in pedagogical theories (e.g., Lopez and Louis 2009; Waters, Loton, and Jach 2019) and is often the starting point in educational product design and positioning.”

“Aligned with the principles of strengths-based education (Lopez & Louis, 2009), the level of project complexity obtained from the KIBO Project Rubric is meant to highlight the strengths of project creators’ efforts and achievement, rather than position any misconceptions in their learning as…”

“Lately, there has been support for promoting strength perspectives around different disciplines, such as education (Lopez & Louis, 2009) and family therapy (Hanna, 2018).”

“As noted by Lopez and Louis (2009), “teach-ers utilizing a strengths-based stance begin by selecting pedagogical approaches that bring out their students’ best in the educational process and seek to model how they leverage students’ strengths in teaching” (p. 5).”

“Furthermore, to support a strengths-based approach to education (Lopez and Louis, 2009), it is important that descriptors are written using positively framed language.”

“Enhancing students’ psychological, social, and emotional competencies is an essential element of positive psychology and has been linked to better learning outcomes (Lopez & Louis, 2009; Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009).”

“Rooted in the field of social work, the strength-based approach empowers individuals by recognizing and nurturing their strengths and potential, facilitating positive life changes [15].”

“that teachers develop greater awareness of students’ ‘everyday’ literacies, claiming that this will improve teacher respect for students’ literacy practices and improve students’ experiences of further education by ‘increasing potential for negotiating the border between vernacular and curriculum literacies’ (2006, p.…”

“A strengths-based approach is well established within inclusive education, however, there is limited research in using the same approach within WIL (Cederbaum & Klusar-itz, 2009) and in particular students with disability on WIL (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“Research reveals that a strengths-based approach benefits students in their learning experiences and academic outcomes (Bowers & Lopez, 2010; Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“…monitor their investment in their own learning and includes items measuring goal directedness (Snyder, 1995), self-regulated learning (Pintrich, 2004), time and resource management (Ryff & Keyes, 1995), and the ability to intentionally apply strengths to academic challenges (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“During this time, Elders and youth had the opportunity to grow their relationships further, another value of strength-based approaches (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“…by Weick et al. [115] in the field of social work, the concept of the strengths’ perspective or strength-based approach has applications in various fields and disciplines, including psychology [24], psychotherapy [75, 76], community development and mental health services [116] and education [117].”

“…the last decade, practitioners in higher education working with undergraduate students have devoted considerable resources toward infusing their practices with strengthsbased approaches to promote students’ success and well-being (Lopez & Louis, 2009; Louis, 2011; Soria & Stubblefield, 2015a).”

“Listed are the topics discussed during the interviews based on existing literature (Lopez & Louis, 2009): Self-awareness—assessing self-awareness in their role as an educator.”

“However, these authors also specify that strengths based education should involve not only strengths assessment, but also individualized advising/teaching, networking with supporters of strengths development, deliberate application of strengths within and outside the classroom and intentional development of strengths…”

“Instead, a strengths-based approach leverages the unique assets that each individual brings to a learning community to be successful (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“2 | Abril-Junio | 2020 | 3 en los estudiantes (19), aparte de tener mayor motivación y rendimiento académico (20,21).”

“Implications for teacher preparation programs and service-learning in higher education are discussed. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2021.150109 and this approach focuses on “the positive aspects of student effort and achievement, as well as human strengths” (Lopez & Louis, 2009, p. 1-2).”

“Given the asymmetrical development of research across these dimensions, there is a lack of interaction and feedback between the different yet complementary research findings (Kats 2021, 2016; Karademir Co¸skun 2022; Keshav et al. 2018; Lopez and Louis 2009).”

“Strengthsbased approaches to pedagogy require that we move away from penalizing learning gaps and instead concentrate on encouraging students’ strength exploration and refinement (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“Lopez and Louis (2009) state that strengths-based education is “a philosophical stance and daily practice that shapes how an individual engages the teaching and learning process . . . that emphasize the positive aspects of student effort and achievement, as well as human strengths” (p. 1).”

“On the other hand, strength is to encourage an individual instead of being harmed (Ege, 2017)., (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“Lopez and Louis (2009) elaborate that educators help students to identify and apply their strengths in the learning process so that they can reach previously unattained levels of personal excellence.”

“…values, this study employed resilience theory (Ponce-Garcia et al., 2015), emphasizing that social work students should be the subjects to be supported with resilient perspectives before being judged in their suitability to their profession (Brunzell et al., 2015; Lopez & Louis, 2009; NASW, 2015)).”

“Cultivation of character strength is consistent with the spirit of strengths-based education, which maintains that everyone has the potential to capitalize on one’s best qualities and lead to greater success rather than focusing on overcoming weakness or deficiencies [18].”

“As indicated earlier above, Deaf students are very skilled at perceiving visual cues, and if language instruction involves more visual input, this advantage can be leveraged in a strengths-based education approach (see Lopez & Louis, 2009).”

“There is a fundamental assumption that this potential exists in all students, and educators have a responsibility to help students realize it (Lopez & Louis, 2009).”