Strength-based interventions in schools: a first trial in inclusive context with 11-12 y.o. children

Abstract

Background: Schools tend to be more and more inclusive. Thus, classrooms are often very heterogeneous: students have to live, learn and maybe even flourish with very diverse people. Studies suggest that the ability to create and maintain positive relationships between students plays one of the biggest roles in inclusive classrooms. In this context, strengths can be a very powerful vehicle to establish a greater sense of subjective well-being and enhance positive relationships. In this intervention, it is the teachers themselves who develop a strength-based culture in their classes with a particular activity. This study describes the effects of such an implementation.

Aim: The objective of this pedagogical intervention is to develop and maintain positive relationships between students in an inclusive school context.

Method: Qualitative data were collected in a pilot class of 11 to 12-year-old Swiss students including a child on the autism spectrum. Students’ perceptions of peer relatedness were gathered via computerized open-ended questionnaires at the end of the intervention.

Results: Results highlight that students were strongly satisfied with this strength-based intervention. This intervention helped children identify their peers through competences rather than weaknesses. Thus, they felt that peer relationships were enhanced by strength activities.

Conclusions: We will discuss perspectives on research and strength-based pedagogical activities. In inclusive classrooms, strengths interventions seem to play a crucial role in students’ positive relationships which is believed to have impacts on well-being, academic achievement, decrease of bullying.