Elsie Jones-Smith Spotlighting the Strengths of Every Single Student: Why U.S. Schools Need a New, Strengths-Based Approach

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It's a familiar and seemingly logical model: to improve performance, identify weaknesses and target these problem areas. Could doing the opposite be a better way? Licensed clinical psychologist Elsie Jones-Smith argues that strengths-based systems are indeed more effective-not just in social work, where the philosophy became popular; or in the business world, where the concept is increasingly being embraced-but in the academic setting as well.Spotlighting the Strengths of Every Single Student: Why U.S. Schools Need a New, Strengths-Based Approach explains how and why a system that focuses on students' strengths enables kids to be self-confident, goal-directed, and to possess a stronger sense of self-efficacy, self-control, and academic achievement. Jones-Smith also explains how such a system spurs appreciation and advancement of multiple intelligences, which in turn gives students the ability to address weaknesses-on their own. Another plus: this approach has also been shown to generally reduce school disciplinary actions and increase class attendance time.