{"id":44127,"date":"2021-06-17T15:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T19:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=44127"},"modified":"2021-06-25T09:18:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T13:18:27","slug":"ask-the-expert-how-can-teaching-math-from-a-strengths-based-perspective-help-students-succeed-when-teachers-utilize-a-students-strengths-they-position-them-as-already-possessing-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/2021\/06\/17\/ask-the-expert-how-can-teaching-math-from-a-strengths-based-perspective-help-students-succeed-when-teachers-utilize-a-students-strengths-they-position-them-as-already-possessing-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask the Expert: How Can Teaching Math From a Strengths-based Perspective Help Students Succeed? \u2018When Teachers Utilize a Student\u2019s Strengths, They Position Them as Already Possessing a Way of Knowledge That They Use To Understand the World,\u2019 Says Associate Professor Jessica Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is part of the monthly <\/em>\u201cAsk the Expert\u201d series<\/em><\/a> in which NC State College of Education faculty answer some of the most commonly asked questions about education.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students\u2019 thinking is often evaluated from a deficit standpoint, focusing on what they don\u2019t yet know, says Jessica Hunt, Ph.D.<\/a>, an associate professor of mathematics education and special education in the NC State College of Education. This is especially true when it comes to teaching mathematics to students with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Instead of focusing on what students don\u2019t know, Hunt says that it is best for teachers to approach lessons from a strengths-based perspective. This means focusing on what students already know, uncovering their strengths and building on those strengths through instruction. Her research focuses on redirecting instructional practice across both math education and special education for students with math difficulties and disabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen teachers utilize a student\u2019s strengths, they position them as already possessing a way of knowing that they use to understand the world and to learn, and that supports them to build more productive math dispositions, agency and powerful math concepts,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cIt means creating and sustaining views of the student as mathematically able and mathematically brilliant. When teachers do that, they remove the \u2018problem\u2019 from the student and place it as a challenge on instructional design and classroom interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To use a strengths-based perspective, educators must uncover what their students know and understand the ways that they\u2019re thinking about specific problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Hunt shared the scenario of a student named Joe* who is presented with a fraction task that asks him to share five tacos equally among two people. In her example, Joe\u2019s solution is that each person gets two tacos and one is left over, instead of each person getting two-and-a-half tacos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A teacher approaching instruction from a strengths-based perspective, Hunt said, would acknowledge that Joe has a specific way of thinking about equality because he gives each of the two people the same number of tacos and pushes the final taco aside because there is not enough for each person to get a whole one. He also had a strategy for creating groups of two, which an educator could use to help him build fractional concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA strengths-based perspective means that we as educators use instruction as a mechanism to uncover strengths and knowledge and build from them,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cWe reframe our thinking from \u2018what does the student not know\u2019 to the far more powerful question of \u2018what does<\/em> the student know and how can I build from it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaching teaching from a strengths-based perspective, Hunt said, intertwines with three important elements regarding how people learn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n