A
Comprehensive
StrengthsBased
Approach to
the First-Year
Experience
Laurie A. Schreiner, Ph.D.
Eileen Hulme, Ph.D.
Azusa Pacific University
2006 Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience
Strengths-Based Education:
A Paradigm Shift
• “Survival of the fittest”
• “Deficit remediation”
• “Strengths-based education”
Strengths Philosophy
“Individuals gain more when they build on
their talents, than when they make
comparable efforts to improve their areas
of weakness.”
--Clifton & Harter, 2003, p. 112
What Are Strengths?
• Talent + Knowledge + Skills = Strength
• Talents are naturally recurring patterns of
thought, feeling, or behavior that can be
productively applied
• By refining our dominant talents with skill and
knowledge, we can create strength: the ability to
provide consistent, near-perfect performance in
a given activity.
--Clifton & Harter, 2003
The Highest Achievers
• Spend most of their time in their areas of
strength
• Have learned to delegate or partner with
someone to tackle areas that are not strengths
• Use their strengths to overcome obstacles
• Invent ways of capitalizing on their strengths in
new situations
The Focus Changes
FROM:
• Problems
• Attendance
• Preparation
• Putting into the
student
• Average
TO:
• Possibilities
• Engagement
• Motivation
• Drawing out from the
student
• Excellence
Why A Strengths-Based Approach
Promotes Student Achievement
Strengths Awareness  Confidence 
Self-Efficacy  Motivation to excel 
Engagement
Apply strengths to areas needing
improvement  Greater likelihood of
success
Identifying Strengths
• Clifton StrengthsFinderTM (The Gallup
Organization)
• Text for First-Year Students: Clifton &
Anderson (2002) StrengthsQuest:
Discover and Develop Your Strengths in
Academics, Career, and Beyond
• Advising questions
Evidence of Students’
Strengths
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Pay attention to yearnings
What is most satisfying? What do you enjoy most?
Describe a successful day
Describe key achievements in your life
Look for rapid learning -- what comes easily?
Watch for “flow” or “soaring” events--times when
excellence was achieved without conscious
thought
Building Strengths
1. Identify the natural talent themes
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Ways of processing information
Ways of interacting with people
Ways of seeing the world
Habits, behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs that can be
productively applied
2. Affirm those themes with significant others
3. Develop the themes by learning knowledge and
practicing skills
4. Apply the strengths to new or challenging situations
Strengths-Based Approaches to
the First-Year Experience
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First-Year Seminars
Advising
Residence education programs
Orientation
Leadership courses or programs
Mentoring programs
Technological interventions
Strengths-Based Approaches
to the First-Year Course
• Lots of ways NOT to do it!
• Concentrated modules (4 is typical)
• Peer mentors, strengths counselors, or
other outside-of-class mechanisms
• StrengthsQuest as a text
• Approach is infused in other material
throughout the term
One Approach
• Four class sessions (1-1/2 hour each)
– Identify strengths through Clifton StrengthsFinder outside of
class
– Use StrengthsQuest text and exercises
– Journaling and out-of-class assignments
– How to communicate with others and work in teams, based on
your strengths
• 30-minute interview with advisor to discuss strengths
and how to capitalize on strengths to overcome
obstacles
• Written personal success plan is part of course
requirement
Results of Empirical Study
Significant differences between the 8 treatment sections
and the 8 control groups in:
– Satisfaction with total advising experience (5.68 vs. 4.65,
p < .001)
– Perceived helpfulness of personal success plan (5.64 vs. 5.17,
p < .05)
– Course evaluations (5.70 vs. 4.74, p < .001)
– Perception of instructor (5.99 vs. 5.48, p < .01)
– Cumulative GPA after one semester and after one year
First semester: 2.84 vs. 2.51 (p < .001)
First year: 2.77 vs. 2.43 (p < .01)
– Retention after one year
77.6% vs. 65.9% (p < .05)
Azusa Pacific University
Approach
• 927 first-year students
• Peer leaders were trained to run all the
strengths groups outside of class
• 4 class sessions
• Designed videos on their strengths
• Journaling
• Strengths counseling appointment
Results
Significant differences in:
• Relating what they are learning to who they are
as unique persons
• Seeing others in light of their strengths
• Planning their future around their strengths
• Applying strengths to achieve academically
• Academic self-efficacy
• Positive self-concept
What is a “strengths-based” course?
• Instructor is teaching from his or her own
strengths
• Instructor shares his/her strengths with
students and how they are used to be
successful in the discipline
• Instructor encourages and assists students
as they identify their own strengths
• Instructor teaches students to apply
strengths to course assignments
• Instructor provides variety and options in
course assignments, according to
students’ strengths
• Instructor assigns work outside of class to
identify and build students’ awareness and
development of their strengths
• Teams are created in class that capitalize
on diversity of strengths
Infusion of a Strengths Approach
Throughout the First-Year Seminar
• Identity and Values
• Relationships, Team-Building, and Conflict
Resolution
• Academic Applications: Learning Styles,
Applying strengths to academic challenges
• Diversity Issues
• Career Planning Process
• Managing Stress
• Leadership
“Good advising may be the
single most underestimated
characteristic of a successful
college experience.”
--Light (2001)
What Is Academic Advising?
“…assisting students to realize the
maximum educational benefits available to
them by helping them to better understand
themselves and to learn to use the
resources of the institution to meet their
special educational needs and
aspirations.”
» David Crockett, USA Group/Noel-Levitz
Three Major Issues
Advisors Typically Confront
• Course selection
• Adjusting to the demands and
requirements of college
• Choosing a career
Advising with Impact
• Advisors who are:
– Knowledgeable
– Accessible
– Concerned
• Advising that is:
– Strengths-based
– Planning-centered
– Goal-directed
Strengths-Based Advising
How is it different?
• Operates from a different foundation: that by
becoming aware of their strengths, students will
be more motivated and academically engaged
• The focus shifts from problems to possibilities
• The framing of advising tasks and questions
shifts
How Is It Different?
• The feeling a student experiences in the
advising session is different
– They feel understood and known by their advisors at
a much deeper level
– They experience higher motivation levels since their
choices reflect and tap into their strengths
– They are significantly more satisfied with advising
• Students gain confidence and a sense of
direction from the advising session
Steps in Strengths-Based Adivising
• Identify and affirm students’ talents
• Build students’ awareness of how these
talents can be combined with skills and
knowledge to develop strengths
• Set goals with students, helping them see
that strengths establish pathways to goals
• Develop an action plan
Residence Life Programs
Orientation
Leadership Programming
Using Technology
Adapting a Strengths-Based
Approach to Your Own Campus
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Work within your “sphere of influence”
Determine outcomes in advance
Plan the evaluation before the implementation
Allow plenty of time
Ownership and buy-in throughout the faculty,
staff and executive administration – begins with
understanding their own strengths
• Need help with evaluation instruments?
For more information…
Laurie Schreiner, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Eileen Hulme, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Noel Academy for
Strengths-Based Leadership and Education
Engaging Learners, Inspiring Leaders
Azusa Pacific University
Azusa, CA 91702-7000
(626)815-5349