NEW Developmental strengthsquest-presentation

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.