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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for a pedagogical shift from “problems” to “possibilities”, which will help ease the transition of students into higher education (as well as the transitions between levels of study and employment), especially those coming from under-represented and under-privileged backgrounds, known in the UK as the widening-participation category.

GSM London is the first higher education provider in the UK to implement a strengths-based approach to staff and student development. This study looks at the delivery plan for strengths-based education, especially how it can inform and reshape information literacy instruction in the library and other academic skills modules.

Higher education is an important environment to help learners develop their talents into strengths, which can be defined as “the ability to provide consistent and near-perfect performance in a given activity” (Buckingham and Clifton, 2005, p. 20). There is a perception that widening-participation students have more significant gaps or weaknesses upon entering university education. This case study confirms that not remediation but a strengths-based approach has the strongest potential to enable students to better manage their weaknesses and become independent learners.

Further research is required, as not enough empirical data could be collected after only one semester of strengths-based learning implementation at GSM.

The author attempts to re-conceptualise information literacy instruction and propose a mapping exercise, in which library instruction is aligned to the principles of strengths-based education and the language of 34 themes in the popular strengths assessment tool from the Gallup organisation. The expectation is to build fluid transitions between levels of study and academic matters and extracurricular activities that students take part in. This approach can also assist learners far beyond the library and long after they leave university, equipping students with a skillset that enables a more meaningful participation in society.

Existing methods of enhancing-based public speaking efficacy are based on the deficit-based model. On the other hand, public speaking is an ability that has a potential to produce anxiety, fear of negative evaluation. The purpose of this paper was to explore the use of strength-based learning pedagogy, i.e. appreciative inquiry to work upon enhancing public speaking skills of engineers.

An appreciative inquiry was conducted on 15 engineers using 4D model. The data were gathered using narrative analysis and grounded theory.

Participants shared their stories of past, present and future to derive meaningful insights that have potential to bring development.

The study has an underpinning in Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory. As practitioners of self-determination theory open the positive space for individuals to learn, appreciative inquiry aids in opening such positive space so that learners can experiment openly without any fear of negative evaluation. It prepares them by enhancing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

The study motivated engineers to focus on effortless delivery of their speeches and eliminate other associated fear. The study can be used as a classroom pedagogy.

As public speaking is associated with fear of negative evaluation and anxiety, it has a potential to affect self-confidence and self-image adversely. As appreciative inquiry fosters one’s confidence positively through constructionism, the appreciative inquiry can be a choice of pedagogy and has positive implications for learners at the social level.

The study presents a fairly novel approach as it focuses on encouraging engineers to improve their presentation skills and to focus on what they do well (rather than what their weaknesses are) so they can build their confidence.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how first-year students conduct everyday life research and how, if possible, their everyday research skills can inform information literacy instruction in higher education. Very few studies in information literacy emphasize existing knowledge that students bring with them to college; instead, the emphasis tends to fall on deficits in students’ academic research skills. Strengths-based approaches or asset-based approaches as found in the literature of psychology and education provide a basis for exploring this direction in information literacy education.

The research used a phenomenographic methodology, interviewing 40 first-year students from two large universities, a medium-sized university and a community college.

The qualitative study suggests that first-year students are capable of using information purposefully to learn or research interests that have sparked their curiosities. They are also capable of reflecting on the ways that their investigations fulfilled their purposes, resulted in unexpected outcomes or made them consider their issue in a new light. These existing capacities provide promising starting points for strengths-based approaches to information literacy instruction.

Dialogue with students about prior research experiences enables teaching librarians to plan engaging, authentic information literacy curriculum that acknowledges existing strengths.

This study provides a valuable contribution to empirical evidence of student research skills prior to entering higher education and suggests connections between those skills and the ACRL Information Literacy Framework. In addition, the study provides a case for strengths-based education, activating students’ prior knowledge to learn and create new knowledge. Authors have presented at Library Instruction West, July 2018.

This practitioner-focused article highlights a collaborative, school-wide project at a PDS that showcased elementary students’ strengths and talents. Based on the children’s book, The Smart Cookie (John, 2021), teachers and the university professor-in-residence developed professional learning communities, which inspired the creation of a space for all students to demonstrate ways in which they were “smart cookies” that aligned with our comprehensive mission of promoting inclusive practices.

Rooted in professional learning communities, teachers at our PDS spent the first half of the school year learning about chosen topics of social–emotional learning, stamina and neurodiversity. The Smart Cookie Project was created to demonstrate the connections between these topics. Students at the PDS were given the opportunity to create an original project that showcased their creativity, interests and talents. Projects were then displayed during a schoolwide showcase.

The impact of the project and the showcase demonstrated the importance of creating opportunities for both teacher and student innovation. The project brought the community together, allowed students to be viewed through strengths-based perspectives, helped teachers see how their own learning can positively impact their practice and emphasized the need for honoring student choice in the classroom.

The project discussed here can lend itself to fellow PDSs looking to adopt innovative instructional approaches, honor inclusive practices and situate students in places of strength.

An analysis is conducted on the implementation of Capstone Projects (CAPP) at a private business college in the UK as part of their work-based learning (WBL) strategy. CAPP are introduced for the first time in this college in the Autumn semester of 2017. The purpose of this paper is to study the continuity and impact of WBL through the CAPP.

Comparative data of student experience were collected and analysed from online polls throughout the Autumn and following Summer semester webinar lectures and a content analysis of formative assessment work included in the final submissions.

Data indicated that recommended changes after the Autumn semester were only partially successful by the Summer semester and that the continuity of the key pedagogical strategies identified in the Autumn semester were still noticed and mentioned (implicitly and explicitly) in the following Summer semester. Data indicated that the CAPP was a rewarding challenge, that the process of using a webinar was an appreciated and effective process overall and that good supervision made a significant impact on the success of the process.

The implication of the research is that it indicates student experience from the application of WBL in the CAPP process.

Key future recommendations addressing improvements were mainly focussed upon the programme administration.

The work adds to a minimal amount of research on WBL within CAPP in the UK and adds to the knowledge within the field of WBL.

In 2003, Howard surveyed African Americans with emphasis on academic identities and college aspirations. This investigator interviewed African-American students at two urban high schools to gain insight relative to their college ambitions, educational capabilities, and academic identities. According to the students interviewed one specific area that affected their academic identity and college aspirations was perceived racism and discrimination, including counselors’ and teachers’ perception of their intelligence, unfair placement in special needs courses, and teachers’ attitude and behavior toward students (Howard, 2003).

The impact of academic and school-related factors on college readiness, aspirations, and access has been examined frequently within the literature (Barber & Torney-Purta, 2008; Polite, 1994; Taliaferro & DeCuir-Gunby, 2008; Uwah, McMahon, & Furlow, 2008; Wimberly, 2002; Yun & Kurlaender, 2004). Several factors related to school racial composition and perceived school support (Yun & Kurlaender, 2004), school relationships (Wimberly, 2002), gaps in exposure to college preparatory and advanced placement curriculums (Taliaferro & DeCuir-Gunby, 2008), teacher perceptions (Barber & Torney-Purta, 2008), and structural inequalities (Polite, 1994) have been identified as variables that significantly impact the opportunities for African-American children to be exposed to the types of interpersonal relationships and educational experiences necessary for preparing them to succeed in postsecondary education.

This article aims to report on the findings from a research project that explored a school’s changing ideological storyline with the appointment of a new Principal and the Board of Trustees’ intention to move towards a strengths-based approach to education. Following the school’s dialogue and decision-making over a three-year period enabled the identification of a range of competitive processes between the dominant and an emergent ideology within the school.

Using an ideological framework proposed by Meighan et al. (2007), the research focussed on the development and maintenance of shared understandings within each ideology. For the purpose of this article, the participants have been limited to those in school governance, the school’s senior leadership team and some teachers across a three-year period. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, online surveys and informal observations and analysed through interpretive and hermeneutic processes.

The findings show the subtleties and nuances of two dominant and competing ideologies that represented different philosophies for education: a deficit discourse of progressive ideals and a strengths-based ideology of education. The existing and dominant ideology is challenged by the determination and moral purpose of the principal with the unanimous support from those in governance. In due process, the school emerged into a creative enterprise through the adoption of shared understandings that were underscored by a strengths-based ideology.

It is incumbent upon school principals to notice the shifting organisational storylines within their schools and communities and act in a manner that realises the moral imperative of schooling for the students (Fullan, 2011). This article opens specific ideological processes that have appreciatively moved a school towards pedagogical excellence and a repurposing of the organisation for the students’ sake.

The use of film as a teaching methodology in an undergraduate personal leadership development course helped students apply strengths-based leadership concepts. The film Temple Grandin was utilized to illustrate key concepts from Buckingham and Clifton’s (2001) text, Now, Discover Your Strengths. After completing the Gallup Clifton StrengthsFinder^® assessment, students viewed the film Temple Grandin and identified Dr. Grandin’s perceived top five strengths in relation to scenes from the film. Several lessons were devoted to the exploration and development of students’ strengths. This practice paper describes the teaching methodologies employed and provides recommendations for leadership educators seeking to implement the use of film in their courses.