Strengths BasedTeaching and

LearningPresented by

Carlene Cassidy, Assoc. Professor, Anne Arundel Community College& 

Diane Sabato, Assoc. Professor, Springfield Technical Community College

Overview: to learn about personal strengths assessment tools and how to leverage strengths

in academics, career and beyond.

Agenda:Why use this approach?What are the tools?Where can I use them?How can I use them?

What is a strength?

A strength is a "capacity for feeling, thinking, and behaving in a way that

allows optimal functioning in the pursuit of outcomes".

Snyder & Lopez 2007

Why?

• Changing focus from deficit thinking to achievement mindset

• Play to our strengths, set meaningful goals

• Build confidence in face of entrepreneurial adversity

• Create well rounded teams

• Personal, interpersonal and social well-being

What are the tools?

• Gallup StrengthsFinder 2.0 - measures situational themes of talent, strengths of competence.

• VIA Character Strengths Survey - measures positive pychological traits, or strengths of character.

• Myers Briggs - identifies the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgement. Preferences allow us to have different interests, different ways of behaving, and different ways of seeing the world. Knowing these personality strengths and challenges for yourself and others can help you understand and appreciate how everyone contributes to a situation, a task, or the solution to a problem.

StrengthsFinder

Goal - for students to:

Discover

Develop and 

Apply Strengths

StrengthsFinder 5 Themes

How they relate to:  Academics  Relationships  Career Choices

Sample Themes

• Activator - makes things happen

• Arranger - can organize for maximum productivity

• Command - take control and make things happen

• Connectedness - faith in links between things

• Woo - love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over

VIA - The Six Virtues

Wisdom and Knowledge: cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge

Courage: emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal

Humanity: interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others

Justice: civic strengths that underlie healthy community life

Temperance: strengths that protect against excess

Transcendence: strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning

VIA - The 24 Strengths

Wisdom and Knowledge: Creativity, Curiosity, Open-mindedness, Love of learning; Perspective

Courage: Bravery, Persistence, Integrity, Vitality 

Humanity: Love, Kindness, Social intelligence 

Justice: Citizenship, Fairness, Leadership

Temperance: Forgiveness and Mercy, Humility/Modesty, Prudence, Self-regulation

Transcendence: Appreciation for beauty and excellence, Gratitude,  Hope, Humor, Spirituality

VIA Character Strengths

Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory

Where can I use them?

• Classrooms 

• Professional Development Programs

• Workforce Development Trainings

How can I use them?

Student examples     Tent cards, mid-semester check-ins, setting up teams,"getting to know you" exercises,

      career counseling

Professional development examples     Teaching samples, group strength chart, management and leadership

Workforce development examples

     Motivation, team building and communication trainings

Details

• Details, handouts, links

• Giveaways!!

The power of strengths…

Contact Information

• Carlene Cassidy, cmcassidy@aacc.edu

• Diane Sabato, dsabato@stcc.edu