Diana Allison, PhD, ASID Darla Green, LEED AP Associate Professors – Interior Design

1. Diana Allison, PhD, ASID Darla Green, LEED AP Associate Professors – Interior Design Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS Kansas Council for Workforce Education 2012 Spring Drive-In Workshop Increasing Learning and Strengthening Teaching ThroughStrengths-Based Education

2. Introductions • Who are you? • Where are you from? • What do you hope to come away with?

3. So What’s the Big Idea? “People that understand their most effective behaviors and talents are best able to develop strategies to meet and exceed the demands of their daily lives, their careers, and their families.” Clifton, 2006

4. The Dilema Wanting to connect with unique student process to form knowledge Our perspective

5. What Is Known • Self-knowledge empowers students

6. Background Strengths-based Education • Return to basic educational principles • Alfred Binet- Enhancing skills & addressing deficits not just remediating problems (Binet & Simon, 1916) • Hurlock (1925) – Praise of student work is more powerful than criticism • Chickering (1969) – College student development theory: Development of student’s broad-based talents

7. Background Strengths-based Education • Positive Psychology • Bowers (2008) - Examining and promoting strengths and managing deficits • Csikszentmihalyi (1990) – Optimal experience called ‘flow’

8. BackgroundStrengths-based Education • StrengthsQuest: Discover Your Strengths in Academics, Career, and Beyond (Clifton, Anderson, & Schreiner, 2006) • Donald Clifton – Father of Strengths Psychology; Grandfather of Positive Psychology • Acquired Gallup in 1988

9. Principles of Strengths-Based Education(Lopez & Louis, 2009) • 1) identification of students’ strengths • 2) personalizing the students’ learning experience based upon their strengths

10. Principles of Strengths-Based Education(Lopez & Louis, 2009) • 3) networking and communication of students’ strengths with those who will support and acknowledge strength-based success

11. Principles of Strengths-Based EducationLopez & Louis, 2009 • 4) deliberately applying strengths inside and outside of the classroom • 5) intentional development of the students’ strengths

12. “What would happen if we studied what is right with people?” • Now, Discover Your Strengths (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001) • StrengthsQuest: Discover Your Strengths in Academics, Career, and Beyond (Clifton, Anderson, & Schreiner, 2006) • StrengthsFinder 2.0 (Rath, 2007)

13. StrengthsFinder 2.0 • StrengthsFinder 2.0 (Rath 2007) Conducted over 2 million interviews • 34 themes developed • Talent (innate) x Investment (skills & knowledge) = Strength (ability to consistently provide near perfect performance) (Rath, 2007)

14. StrengthsFinder 2.0 • Top 5 of 34talent themes • Personalized explanation and suggestions based on each individual’s combination

16. Exercise #1 • What is your first reaction to these terms? • What do they mean to you at this point? • Does anything in the report surprise you? • How well do you feel your Signature Themes describe the ways in which you most naturally thing, feel, and behave as a unique individual? • With whom will you share your results?

17. Exercise #2 • Signature theme and definition of this theme in your own words

18. Exercise #3 • Sign your name 5 times • Switch hands, sign your name again 5 times with your non-dominant hand

19. What I Want Most

20. 10 Minute Break

22. Strengths Mapping

23. Application in the Classroom • From group projects to team projects • Implemented • Spring 2011 – 2 Capstone classes: total of 17 unique students • Fall 2011 – 1 Capstone class, 1 Residential Design class, 1 Space Planning class: total of 29 unique students • Spring 2012 – 1 Capstone class, 1 Residential Design class, 1 Space Planning class, 1 Introduction to Interior Design: total of 35 unique students

24. Approach • Homework Assignment • Classroom Discussion & Activity • Weekly Exercises • Team Projects

25. Frequencies

26. Student Comments “I wish we had done this in our first class in the program”

27. “I wish all our instructors knew what our strengths were before they put us on teams”

28. “Now I understand why they [team members] are approaching parts of the project as they are and it makes it easier to work with them”

29. StrengthsQuest Activity Workbook • www.strengthsquest.com

30. Lunch

31. “Doing what we do best leads to high levels of engagement and productivity”. (Lopez & Louis, 2009, p. 1.)

32. Reflection from Morning

33. Gregorc Learning Style Delineator

34. Gregorc Learning Style Delineator • Perception • Concrete • Abstract • Ordering • Sequential • Random

35. Gregorc Learning Style Delineator CONCRETE: “It is what it is”, you deal with the here and now and process information based on what you see, hear, and think. ABSTRACT: “Things aren’t always what they appear”, you look for patterns using your intuition and imagination.

36. Gregorc Learning Style Delineator RANDOM: You hop around from thought to thought and process information in chunks SEQUENTIAL: You plan a very linear way of solving problems. You are an step 1 to step 2 person.

37. Four Learning Styles CS = Concrete Sequential CR = Concrete Random AS = Abstract Sequential AR = Abstract Random

38. Concrete Sequential • Abilities • Remember details • Separate facts • Apply literal meaning to verbal statements • Plan time and Activities Well • Dislikes • Sharing • Disorderly conditions • Discussing philosophically or emotionally • Too many options to choose from

39. CS – They want teachers to… • Provide concrete examples • Present information sequentially – linear • Maintain teacher-learner roles • Offer respect, support, and protection

40. Concrete Random • Abilities • Use insight and intuition to see big picture • Create new ideas, approaches, & products • Function well in unstructured, open-ended activities • Dislikes • Step-by-step instruction • Details or routine procedures • Communal teamwork

41. CR – They want teachers to … • Provide concrete examples and abstract ideas • Guide their work • Promote and reward natural curiosity • Be ethical, genuine, and flexible • Provide stimulus rich environments

42. Abstract Sequential • Abilities • See forest and the trees • Transcend details to see patterns and the “big picture” • Analyze, compare, contrast, evaluate & judge with ease • Dislikes • Step-by-step, touchy-feely & brainstorming activities • Considering ideas and claims they don’t feel are valid • Having to state how the feel rather than what they think

43. AS – They want teachers to … • Encourage solitary work and personal effort • Provide abstractions via ideas, models, theories, & concepts • Use sequential, substantive, logical, rational, and structured techniques • Be subject matter-oriented, masters of content • Be strong classroom disciplinarians

44. Abstract Random • Abilities • Read body language and assess emotional states • View and relate parts and their relations with the whole • Accept criticism if it is kindly expressed • See beauty in the darkest of events • Dislikes • Dogmatic & strictly logical people & materials • Conservative, restrictive, and antiseptic environments • Receiving continual criticism, unkind remarks & sarcasm

45. AR – They want teachers to … • Provide activities that promote the subjective, affective, & abstract • Be a facilitator providing opportunities for students to talk, work, and learn with each other • Vary ways of learning instead of 1 or 2 • Provide colorful, stimulus-rich environments • Be accessible before and after class

46. www.gregorc.com

47. 5 Minute Break

48. Reflection

49. Peanut Butter Meets Chocolate • HOW we learn: Gregorc Learning Style Delineator • Cognitive Instrument • WHY we learn: StrengthsFinder 2.0 • Strengths-based instrument

50. Advantages for Student • Communication • Self-discovery • Awareness and acceptance • Empathy for others