Using Strengths to Build Competencies
among Developmental Writers
Developmental Education and
Student Success Conference
Anoka Technical College
February 15, 2012
Using Strengths to Build
Competencies among
Developmental Writers
Presented by Anoka Technical College
Elena Favela
Counselor
Steve Jaksa
English Faculty
Diana Ostrander
English Faculty
This presentation will be available
from our Blog site:
www.atcstrengths.wordpress.com
Elena Favela
ATC Counselor
Creating a Culture of Learning
Program Overview
This session will provide examples
of how Anoka Technical College has
leveraged the power of the
StrengthsQuest assessment for
student development, with a focus
on the needs of developmental
students.
Program Overview
• Who we are – ATC demographics
• Goals of Strengths Integration
• Student Support Services
-Brand New Student Success Center
- Student Success Coaches
• Institutional Strategies
• Developmental English
-Curriculum
-Impact on successful completion
•Summary, Q & A
Minnesota State Colleges &
Universities
Mission - Provide innovative career and
Mission and
Vision
technical
education to help our students
and communities live and learn well.
Vision - A vital student- and communityfocused institution, providing the finest
career and technical education in
Minnesota.
Anoka Technical
College
offers
over 85 degree
Anoka
Technical
College
offers over diplomas,
85 degree awards
awards (certificates,
AAS – 2 year
(certificates,
diplomas,
degrees) in
36 program
areas. Assoc. of
Applied Science – 2 year degrees) in
36 program areas
ATC Demographics
3,643 students, 1,856 Full Time Equivalent students
(percentages are of all students enrolled)
61% are women
55% are over age 25
42% are undergraduate transfer students
17% are students of color
27% are first generation status students
54% are Pell-eligible (low income)
67% are enrolled part-time (11 credits or
less per semester).
The average class size is 20 students and 20 students per lab.
What is
StrengthsQuest?
Goals of SQ Integration #1
Provide learning opportunities for all employees to
maximize talent. -Dr. Shari Olson
Staff and faculty professional development - ongoing
Goals of SQ Integration #2
Create new models for Student Success in Academic
and Student Support Programming. – Dr. Shari Olson
Goals of SQ Integration #3
Create a culture of
continuous improvement.
-Dr. Shari Olson
ATC Remains a Strengths-Based College under
Our New Administration, 2011-12
Dean of Student
Affairs
Gary Schindler
President
Jessica Stumpf
Vice-President
Catherine Gatewood
Interim Academic
Dean
Sherry Wickstrom
STRATEGIES USED
2010-2012
Institutional Strategies
INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIES:
Grassroots Approach
Integration into over half of our academic
and technical programs, developmental,
and general education courses
INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIES:
Grassroots Approach
Creation of a new transferrable General
Education course – COMM 1050
Strengths and Wellbeing Spring 2011
80% graduated or are still enrolled Spring 2012
INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIES:
Grassroots Approach
Addition of Three SUCCESS COACHES
•Holistic, student-focused, strengths-based coaching
•Meet students where they are during
all stages of their academic career
•Use strengths to help students:
-Positively reframe their situation
-Proactively problem solve
-With academic skills development and goal reaching
New Student Orientation
• All new students take
the SQ assessment
during their orientation
session
• Begin the shared
language between
student and institution
Institutional Impact
Spring to Spring Persistence (still enrolled)
60.00%
47.80%
49.16%
51.13%
2011
2012
47.64%
44.02%
50.00%
41.03%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
2007
2008
2009
2010
WHY STRENGTHS?
Voices of the people
ATC: Building Student Success Through
Strengths and Well Being
Dr. Diana Ostrander
ATC English Faculty
Strengths-Based Developmental Curriculum:
1. Replaces “Remediating” with “Maximizing.”
2. Translates Students’ Strengths-Confidence into Academic
Confidence.
3. Is Community-Based and Provides a Shared Strengths
Language and Culture.
4. Is Relevant to Students’ Lives, Interests and Needs.
5. Permits Instructors to Know Students’ Unique Talents,
Overriding Stereotypes.
6. Provides Instructors with Guidance about How to
Motivate and “Manage” Students for Their Success.
7. Brings Results of Increased Engagement and Success.
1. “Remediation”: A Barrier, or Means to Graduation?
Ohio Dept. of Education “Race to the Top” Alignment Project Data 2012
The Strengths Path to Retention
• The non-academic factors of academic self-confidence and
achievement motivation have a positive relationship to
retention and “the strongest relationship to college GPA”
(ACT Policy Report 1).
• “The caring attitude of college personnel is the most potent
retention force on a campus,” by helping students learn to use
their talents and strengths. (Noel, Levitz, & Saluri 17).
Remediating vs. Maximizing
“To produce excellence, you must study excellence” (SQ xv).
“What would we do if we really loved our students?” (SQ v).
“More students leave college because of
disillusionment, discouragement, or
reduced motivation than because of lack
of ability or dismissal by school
administration” (SQ ix).
“The deficit-based, remediation
programming I had used for more than
10 years interfered with students
becoming top achievers,” programming
that is still the “most prevalent approach
used today” (xiv).
--Edward “Chip” Anderson,
UCLA, 1998
ZPD (Lev Vygotsky)
vs. Strengths as Scaffolding
The Zone of Proximal
Development, or “ZPD,” is
"the distance between the
actual developmental level as
determined by independent
problem-solving and the
level of potential development
as determined through
problem-solving under adult
guidance or in collaboration
with more capable peers."
(Vygotsky 86)
Zones of Strengths Development
Success
Attendance - Retention - GPA
Credits Earned – Graduation Employment
Student Changes
Hope - Expectations - Motivation
Engagement - Self-Efficacy Wellbeing
Strengths Development
Knowledge & Skills
X Talents = Strengths
2. Strengths Confidence:
What was your first thought when you learned your
top-five strengths?
Wow, I guess I am really
like that! How neat.
Surprised on a couple &
confident on the others.
Definitely describes me.
It hit my strengths right
on the button.
They fit me and who I am
as a person.
They fit and reinforced
my ideals of myself.
I feel they fit me well.
That's so me!!!
I strongly agreed with most of
them.
Good feedback.
Totally awesome.
Spot on!
I thought they fit me well.
Seems to describe me
perfectly.
(Student Survey, 2/7/12)
1. How Strengths Confidence Leads to Enhanced
Academic Confidence and Performance
“You like to explain, to describe, to
host, to speak in public, and to
write. This is your Communication
theme at work. Ideas are a dry
beginning. Events are static. You
feel a need to bring them to life, to
energize them, to make them
exciting and vivid. And so you turn
events into stories and practice
telling them. You take the dry idea
and enliven it with images and
examples and metaphors. .. This is
why people like to listen to you.
Your word pictures pique their
interest, sharpen their world, and
inspire them to act.”
Which of your strengths makes you feel excited to be
attending college?” (ATC Student Survey, 2/7/12)
“Stretching myself intellectually and emotionally. My connectedness strength
is a big part of that. I feel like I am surrounded by equals when I am on campus.
I like that everyone is treated the same at ATC.”
“That I am a learner and an input person.”
”The WOO. Many positions are more about the human condition than actual
skill sets than can be taught. My personality and how I interact can go a long
way if I have the basic technical skills to do the job.”
“That I am being responsible with my future and pursuing my goals in life. I
would have to say that my responsibility strength makes me feel this way!”
“Positivity, I believe all things happen for a reason; remain positive, and things
will change.”
“Having a plan to achieve the life I want to live; the strengths that make me feel
this way are futuristic and strategic.”
Achiever, because it's great to be recognized for achieving.”
3. Adding Greater Relevance: Developmental
English Essay Assignments with SQ
1. “Passion” Essay Introduction to Writing and Strengths
(Community/Relationship-Building)
2. Job Search Unit: Cover letter, Resume, Follow-up Letter
(Functional Resume stresses strengths) (Career)
3. “Tell Me about Your Strengths?” Essay Interview
preparation with defined strengths and examples (Career)
4. Advisor Interview Essay: Initiates a Program- and
Strengths-Based Mentoring Relationship, before students
enter the program. (Academics)
5. Scholarship Application Essay: Responds to Application
Questions/Due prior to deadline (Academics, Money)
6. Legacy Letter: Reflective Writing addressed to future
course participants (Community/Relationship-Building)
Strengths + Developmental Writing Goals
Strengths help us reach our developmental education goals:
•To preserve and make possible educational opportunity for each
postsecondary learner.
•To develop in each learner the skills and attitudes necessary for
the attainment of academic career and life goals.
•To ensure proper placement by assessing each learner's level of
preparedness for college course work.
•To maintain academic standards by enabling learners to acquire
competencies needed for success in mainstream college courses.
•To enhance the retention of students.
•To promote the continued development and application of
cognitive and affective learning theory. (http://www.nade.net/AboutDevEd.html)
Student Responses - Developmental English Survey - May 2011
“A change I’ve noticed is an ‘I can do’ attitude.”
“My friends and family have seen me change since I have found and
been using my strengths.”
“It helps me as a student, or on my job by showing me my abilities and
the reason why some things come easily and not others.”
“Knowing my strengths affects me a lot, every single day, what I believe
I can do. You know that you'll always have those qualities, and you
can drawn on them to get you through whatever you face in life.”
“This is one of the best tools I’ve come across since starting college.”
“The facts about these strengths have put me in a better place.”
“What I’ve learned is that everyone is different--some people are better
at being sensitive and others are amazing learners and thinkers. It
helps people to get along, and we can help each other in strengths
that we don't have, to share.”
“ Knowing my strengths has helped me identify qualities in my
children.”
“I have been able to dig into my strengths and use them more
efficiently.”
5. Knowing Students’ Strengths Overrides our
Stereotypes
4. Strengths Provide a Shared
Language and Culture of Learning
James, Mechanical Drafting
Ideation, Learner, Empathy, Achiever, Restorative
Jesse, Automotive
Ideation, Learner, Strategic, Significance, Deliberative
The Four Domains of
Leadership Strength
Executing
Influencing
Relationship
Building
Strategic
Thinking
Achiever
Arranger
Belief
Consistency
Deliberative
Discipline
Focus
Restorative
Activator
Command
Communication
Competition
Maximizer
Self-Assurance
Significance
Woo
Adaptability
Developer
Connectedness
Empathy
Harmony
Includer
Individualization
Positivity
Relator
Responsibility
Analytical
Context
Futuristic
Ideation
Input
Intellection
Learner
Strategic
ocial + Academic
tegration and Student
uccess with Strengths
StrengthsQuest
StrengthsQuestDistribution
Distributionby
byCluster
Cluster
for
forDevelopmental
Basic English Students
Students
Based
Basedonontop
Top
5 Strengths
5 Strengths
Strategic Thinking,
Strategic 21%
Thinking 21%
Executing
Executing
27%28%
InfluencingInfluencing
10%
8%
Relationship
42%
Relationship
42%
University of Wyoming’s Findings Regarding Strengths
UW Students’ Strengths Summary:
• Honors students’ top strengths include achiever, input, learner,
responsibility, and adaptability.
• Underprepared students’ (conditionally-admitted) top strengths
include adaptability, woo, positivity, includer, and empathy.
• All other incoming students’ top strengths include adaptability,
includer, restorative, achiever, and positivity.
“Teaching with StrengthsQuest”
(http://www.uwyo.edu/learn/_files/docs/brownbag_docs/strengthsquest.pdf)
Of the “underprepared” group’s strengths, all but “WOO” are in the
Relationship Domain.
Percent of Strengths for All Students by Theme,
Clustered in the Four Groups
The 34 languages of strengths give instructors
effective, customized motivational language for each
student that can increase persistence and retention.
7. RESULTS: Retention Before (Fall) and After (Spring)
StrengthsQuest Infusion in Basic English Courses
90
80
87
83
79
70
Percent of Students
60
71
Percent "C" or better
50
Percent Completion
40
30
ATC Fall to Spring
Retention:
Developmental
English
20
10
0
Fall - Before SQ
Spring - after SQ
ATC Developmental New-Student Retention:
Year-to-Year Increase of 10.31% (2010-2012)
45.00%
42.50%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
32.19%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Fall 2010 to Fall 2011
Spring 2011 to Spring 2012
Semester-to-Semester Developmental New-Student Retention
11% Increase: Fall to Spring, 2011 to 2012
70.00%
64.40%
60.00%
50.00%
53.41%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Fall 2010-Spring 2011
Fall 2011-Spring 2012
And One More Thing… The Four Domains of
Leadership, Collegewide Goals, and Assessment
Strengths Domains
• Influencing
• Strategic Thinking
• Relationship
Building
• Executing
Collegewide
Goals
• Communication
• Critical Thinking
• Interaction
• Ethical DecisionMaking
Strengths-Based Assessment
1. Student
Engagement in
Strengths within
Curriculum
3. Enthusiasm about
Strengths Achieves
College-wide Goals
2. Strengths and
Collegewide Goals
Meet in Curriculum
ATC Strengths Blog:
www.atcstrengths.wordpress.com
“I always had this low
self-esteem, a fear of
not succeeding in life.
Now, since there are
resources and the help
I need to be successful,
I feel very comfortable
attending college. I can
now be successful,
knowing I have a gift
locked inside me.”
(Student Strengths Survey, 2/7/12)
Steve Jaksa,
ATC English Instructor
Using SQ in Connection with Writing
Assignments
• Job-Search Tool SQ provides a ready means for
students to begin exhibiting and articulating the
talents that make them suitable candidates.
• Organizing Framework for Writing The format of
34 defined strengths allows students to organize
and present their thoughts conceptually.
• Reading-Writing Connection The strengths
themes run through the assigned readings and
writings, providing continuity.
Using SQ in Connection with
Class Readings (Grassroots Text)
• Support for Reluctant Readers Strengths allow a
personal connection between character and
reader. This can enliven a text for someone who
tends not to read or who struggles with reading.
• Real-Life Illustrations This personal connection
allows students to see in the stories their own and
others’ strengths in practice.
• SQ Literary Theory Strengths also provides a tool
for literary analysis, and an additional interpretive
level on which we can discuss readings.
SQ in a Reading Exercise:
Diane Sawyer’s “Daring to Dream Big”
What strengths
motivate Sawyer to
both dream big and
to achieve those
dreams?
(Excerpt)
http://uponthesacredstage.blogspot.com/
2008/06/diane-sawyer.html
Sample Classroom Exercise: Excerpt from
Diane Sawyer’s “Daring to Dream Big”
“She was one of the judges. A well- known writer. A woman whose seagray eyes fixed on you with laser penetration, whose words were always
deliberate. She felt the right words could make all the difference. Her
name was Catherine Marshall. From the first moment I met her, I was
aware that she was holding us to a more exacting standard. While other
pageant judges asked questions about favorite hobbies and social
pitfalls, she sought to challenge.
“During the rehearsal on the last day of the pageant, several of us were
waiting backstage when a pageant official said Catherine Marshall
wanted to speak with us. Most of us were expecting a last-minute pep
talk, but we were surprised. She fixed her eyes upon us. "You have set
goals for yourselves, but I don't think you have set them high enough.
You have talent and intelligence and a chance. I think you should take
those goals and expand them. Think of the most you could do with your
lives. Make what you do matter. Above all, dream big."
“Dare to Dream Big” Strengths
Maximizer: People who are especially talented in the Maximizer theme
focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group
excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something
superb.
Developer: People who are especially talented in the Developer theme
recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of
each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these
improvements.
Command: People who are especially talented in the Command theme
have presence. They can take control of a situation and make
decisions.
Futuristic: People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are
inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with
their visions of the future (StrengthsQuest Activity Workbook).
Questions?
Learn More About Our
Strengths Journey at:
•
www.atcstrengths.wordpress.com
Thank you for attending our session!
This presentation will be available
from our Blog site:
www.atcstrengths.wordpress.com
Works Cited
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The
Development of Higher Psychological Processes. M.
Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, E. Souberman
(Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.