Celebrating Strengths = Enlivened Pedagogy

• In Event: 67.068 - MTCC Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: 67.068-2 - Disrupting Deficit Thinking of Teaching Through Innovation

Abstract

The current heuristic of educational research has been gap- or deficit-based, an approach aligned with the “crisis” and “curative” language leading educational reform. This type of dialog tends to assign blame to teachers, hinders the efficiency of the research-to-practice pipeline, and may explain why educational research has had such a limited impact on teaching and learning in our schools. To address the research-to-practice gap, this study used the principles of Appreciative Inquiry as the lenses that guided the inquiry. The impact on teachers’ cognitive and affective self-perceptions of practice and the resultant pedagogical changes were empowering and encouraging.
Key Words: strengths-based; pedagogical change; self-efficacy; outcome-expectancy; Appreciative Inquiry; writing instruction

Author

• Elizabeth Auguste, The College of William & Mary