Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Does Your School Build on Strengths?

2012; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 93; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/003172171209300617

1940-6487

Shane J. Lopez,

Educational Challenges and Innovations

On the first day of school, little Br'er Rabbit combed his ears, and he went hopping off to his running class. There he was a star. He ran to the top of the hill and back as fast as he could go, and, oh, did it feel good. He said to himself, can't believe it. At school, I get to do what I do Could each of your students say that as they walk out of your classroom? If your students are anything like their peers across the country, fewer than four out of 10 of them would say strongly agree to the following statement: At this school, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day. This comprises one question of 20 on the Gallup Student Poll, and it gives us a sense of a student's daily experience. students who get to do what they do best are empowered and engaged. students who don't, well, they typically are low energy and not as involved. added value of get-ting to do what you do best at school is illustrated in The Animal Story, part of which opened this column. It's a favorite tale told by Donald Clifton, former chairman of Gallup (Clifton, 1995). He would share this story when working with teachers and administrators trying to improve their schools. Let's pick up the story with the little rabbit chatting with his instructor: instructor said, Rabbit, you really have a talent for running. You have great muscles in your rear legs. With some training, you will get more out of every hop. rabbit said, love school. I get to do what I like to do and get to learn to do it better. rabbit loved school early on, but his experience went downhill after he was assigned to two sections of his worst subject. Getting students to love school by helping them learn to do what they do best even better could change our approach to education, making it more student-centered and more strength-centered. Do schools currently attend to the talents of our young people? For two years, we've been asking students about their school's commitment to the best in them. Four out of 10 students believe their schools are on the right track, saying strongly agree to the following item. My school is committed to building the strengths of each student. Attending a school committed to building student strengths increases the likelihood that they have days when they get to do what they do best. With more of these days, students become more engaged. From strengths to engagement Effective strengths-based educational practices and sound messaging about these practices seem to account for the link between the commitment to building student strengths and engagement. first path from the commitment to strengths to engagement is quite direct--engagement is high when a teacher attends to and develops the strengths of each student. Schools that have all students complete the Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer (age 10-14) or StrengthsQuest (age 15 and up) and then dedicate time to developing those strengths through for-mal programs may realize the benefits of increased student engagement. …