Strengths-Based Educating – Career Guidance for Educators

What are the benefits of Strengths-Based Career Consulting Services for educators and students?

Strengths-Based Educating consist of understanding a whole child without imposing what we think a child should be. We should teach students what’s possible and give them a guidance how to search right path. Educators can only act as mentors because the best kind of activity is one what the student independently initiates.

Once the knowledge about Strengths-Based Approach is acquired, educators can apply this knowledge both in their teaching and in noticing and exploring with every young person, his/her advantages, strengths, skills in order to respond to a question “Who am I?”, then to decide what job sectors play to his/her strengths.
Educators should learn students to direct their energy on things that have values for them, assist them in defining professional projects or help them in reorienting their project in case they made bad choice.

Group Strengths-Based Sessions

During group strengths-based sessions I do, I ask teenagers questions. I want to hear students’ answers because their answers help me understand what is important to them at that particular moment of their life, but it also gets them thinking big and projecting themselves into the future. The more questions I ask, the more I learn about what is going on their mind. They’re more able to create connections in their brains about what might be interesting for them.

1-to-1 Strengths-Based Sessions

On 1-to-1 strengths-based sessions, I ask students all sort of questions: what their favourite ( or least hated ) academic subject is in school, if they’re “bookworms”, “techies”, “people’s persons”, what they thought was fun when they were little, if they played with Legos, loved math, music, loved to draw or if they still pursue with some creative activity. I ask apparently unimportant details to try or detect learning/organisational style. Once they come up with some preferences, interests, and memories, I can help them with things to explore options. I also organise extra  workshops using SmartGames® and LEGO bricks. For My Future Job Workshop, see more here.

Career Guidance Program for Educators

After the Strengths-Based Assessment, I use all these details to help a child get the most precise picture of his strengths and challenges.
In case we organise Career Guidance Program for Educators in your school, I will transfer the knowledge of Strengths Based Approach to you directly, and  you’ll do it on your own with your students. It is the same procedure as for a teenagers. The goal is introducing the strengths-based profiling in school environment and getting educators acquainted with Strengths-Based Approach and the way to apply it in their everyday work with children of all ages.

This approach goes well with differentiated instruction and learning as one of the most effective pedagogic practices that produces higher achievement. Children become more engaged in learning when instruction is tailored to their abilities and interests.