Strategies to Support Strengths-Based Learning

Strategies for the Intellectual Environment

Susan Baum, Robin Schader and Steven Owen created a very comprehensive resource in their book: To Be Gifted and Learning Disabled: Strength-Based Strategies for Helping Twice-Exceptional Students. One of the many things they focused on was creating responsive environments in the following domains:

Intellectual Environment
Modifications to the Physical Learning Environment
Creating a supportive Emotional Environment

The following are a few of their strategies suggested for each of these areas:

Intellectual Environment

Too much teacher talk is rarely successful in engaging & holding students’ attention, sometimes words get in the way. Invite students into a lesson by creating meaningful contests and activities. An example presented in their book was of teacher who took role of taxi driver and students interviewed him—then students did this and became mad scientist, etc. next they made a list of what they would want to know about any character. Another way to engage is to stage a discrepant event--this is especially effective in science and math.

Consider offering appropriate entry points to engage students:

•Skill Development: start with a talent area--for example using improvisation/role play before writing and reading.

•New Concept Introduction: field trips, movie clips, guest speakers, demonstrations

Provide Performance-based Assessments with differentiated exit points

•Evaluation through conventional written tests/assignments may not be valid

•Performance/product assessment are better evaluation tools (may be better for all students!)

•To demonstrate whether a concept is understood, individuals should be able to represent knowledge in more than one way using more than one symbol system—example mural/story

Investigating Authentic Problems:

•Use Problem-Based Learning to investigate real-world problems

•Encourage development of authentic products/performances

•Solving genuine problems makes learning relevant and highly contextual

•Involve strategies applicable to real-world domains: inquiry, materials

Integrating Critical and Creative Thinking:

•Encourage simulations, debates, and role-playing
•Elicit unusual or creative answers
•Creative Problem Solving (Eberle& Stanish, 1996) is six-step procedure that guides through idea generation to problem solution

•Synectics(Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2014)

•Talents Unlimited (Schlicter, 2009)

Baum, Schader, Owen 2017