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Sewell (2009:551) indicates that goal setting is essential to strength-based learning especially when teaching neurodiverse students. Some strategies that teachers can use to set achievable goals for students are:

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To implement a strength-based learning approach, teachers need to first identify what their student's strengths are. The AITSL (2020) encourages teachers to get to know their students better as it is helpful to learn about their backgrounds and interests to try to identify potential strengths. This can be done through:

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Another crucial aspect of strength-based learning involves helping other teachers understand and learn about strength-based approaches that they can utilize in their classes. The AITSL (2021) encourages collaborative teaching as it helps teachers implement strategies in a more relevant and effective manner.

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An effective way to continue building a positive relationship with students is through regularly communicating with the parents of students. Armstrong (2012) has shown that connecting parents with their neurodiverse children’s learning can lead to positive learning outcomes.

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Clouder et al. (2020:775) explains that their is a “low level of staff awareness” of different teaching strategies and neurodiversity. Teachers can use meetings, seminars, or courses as an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of strength-based learning for neurodiverse students.

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Teachers are encouraged to share teaching resources to support other teachers and assist in their professional development. By doing this, other teachers can use and learn from the strength-based activities that are created and shared.

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The concept of student voice is a very important part of creating a classroom culture that supports strength-based learning. The DET (2019) ‘Amplify’ policy highlights that student voice is about giving students the “power to influence change”. This means allowing students to think about their strengths and decide how they will learn.

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Strength-based learning is a pedagogy that aims to identify and build on the unique strengths of students rather than addressing students’ weak points. This is significant when teaching neurodiverse students who may have conditions that make it very difficult to overcome their weaknesses.

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Why is strength-based learning effective?

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Why is strength-based learning effective?

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Strength-based learning can be an effective pedagogy to adapt for neurodiverse students for various reasons.

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1. Takes advantage of the student's strengths

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1. Takes advantage of the student's strengths

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The focus of teaching is placed on the unique strengths that each student has which will be significantly helpful for neurodiverse students. Sewell (2009, p. 549) found that dyslexic students would show difficulties in verbal tasks, however, depicted "superior visuo-spatial skills". Hence in this example, a strength-based approach to learning may involve having teachers adapt their lessons to consist of more visual and less verbal information.

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2. Improves self-esteem and self-perception

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2. Improves self-esteem and self-perception

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By focusing on the strengths rather than the weaknesses of students, it will help build their self-esteem and confidence in their own skills and abilities. As teachers, it is important to ensure that our young Australians grow into confident and successful learners under the Alice Springs Education Declaration (DESE 2019).

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3. Increases student's engagement and motivation

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3. Increases student's engagement and motivation

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Aligning learning objectives and topics to students' strengths and interests will make classes more engaging and fun. This is supported by Sewell’s (2009:548) study which found that students with dyscalculia were more motivated and engaged when performing learning tasks that highlighted their strengths.

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4. Builds positive teacher-student relationships

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4. Builds positive teacher-student relationships

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A teacher who supports their students and believes in their strengths and abilities to be successful in life will help with building positive teacher-student relationships. Research has shown that positive teacher-student relationships are strongly associated with improvements in student learning and engagement (NSW Government 2023).

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Teachers can assess the strengths of students through surveys, questionnaires, or 1-to-1 conversations. Ask students about their interests, talents and abilities.

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Teachers should carefully consider how they want to group students in learning activities. It is beneficial to group students with different interests and abilities together as a way for students to learn and leverage each others' strengths.

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It is important to encourage and give students opportunities to reflect and write down what they believe their strengths are. Kumar P and Mohideen (2021:93) that self-reflection was the most common way for schools to identify student strengths.

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Teachers can provide students with choices and options in which tasks or activities they would like to do to achieve the learning objective. This can be as simple as providing different resources for learning such as flashcards or games or giving students the option to choose how they want to deliver assessments such as through written papers, video presentations, or ICT documents.

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Teachers should try to find ways to celebrate student achievements and strengths. This can be done in many different ways such as praising students, providing feedback, displaying student’s work around the class, or giving students awards.

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When giving feedback to students, emphasize the student’s strengths and explain how it has contributed to their learning outcomes. Providing feedback that focuses on developing students' strengths will promote a strength-based classroom culture.

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Teachers can use SMART goals which is an effective goal setting strategy that can be applied to all students, including neurodiverse students (Reber 2022). SMART goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Due to these types of goals being clear and trackable, it holds students and teacher accountable and can also increase motivation for students (Hirtzel 2021).

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It is important to give students opportunities to work collaboratively with peers and learn about other people’s strengths. Stoerkel (2019) suggests that collaboration can help make students feel empowered and supported, encouraging them to use their strengths.

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Having Strength-Based Conversation with Students

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Having Strength-Based Conversation with Students

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Teachers should try to have regular conversations with students relating to their interests and strengths. These discussions are an opportunity to provide feedback to students but will also make them feel supported and understood which strengthens the student-teacher relationship.

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Pairing experienced teachers that understand strength-based learning with newer teachers can help ensure that the next generation of teachers becomes more adept at teaching neurodiverse students. Mentoring allows inexperienced teachers to observe and learn about different resources and strategies that they can use to facilitate a strength-based approach to learning.

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Some students who are musically skilled can benefit from the use of rhythm whilst learning. For example, tapping the rhythm of the syllables of words (Armstrong 2012:36).

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Teachers should encourage students to foster a growth mindset when it comes to learning. This mindset is believed to be essential to strength-based learning as students need to believe that they can further develop their strengths and abilities (Brewerton 2022).

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Help students reflect on possible goals that take advantage of that students strengths. For example, a student that is skilled with technology could set a goal to create an online interactive website.