Student strengths, interests, and passions survey
To Otus, personalized learning happens when instructional practices, content, and learning environments are tailored to the unique needs and learning preferences of individual students. We’ve partnered with Thrively to provide each child with a strengths profile and a playlist of curated resources that engage them in learning activities that are of interest to them which is perfect for use during genius hours or for passion projects. This assessment and the full features and functionality of Thrively are available to Otus teachers and students.
The Thrively Strength Assessment
The Strength Assessment is the foundation for your classroom’s Thrively experience. After completing the 80-question assessment, you and your students receive a personalized profile. Furthermore, The Strength Assessment measures students against 23 different strength factors. Additionally, it takes an inventory of your student’s career aspirations and their extracurricular interests. Together, this information gives you and your students the guideposts for discovering true passion: an uplifting evaluation of the student’s innate strengths; motivating future career goals; and tangible interests that students can pursue to connect their present to their future. Meanwhile, as a teacher, you’ve accepted the calling to educate the whole child and help students reach their full potential. With Otus and Thrively, you now have an online platform to help make it all happen.
Connecting the Strength Assessment to the Classroom
The Strength Assessment is the starting point for Thrively. For one, It gives the student greater self-awareness and a confident foundation from which to explore. Additionally, it unlocks the rest of the Thrively platform. Based on the results of the Strength Assessment, educators can deliver project-based learning and “genius hour” projects. Students can access enrichment opportunities, activities and educational content recommended by the platform. Likewise, they can also connect to a broader community of friends who share their interests. Finally, all of this activity is tracked by each user’s Digital Portfolio, which students build over time to showcase their accomplishments.
The Focus on Strengths
Parents who founded Thrively, like thousands of educators and families across this country, felt the traditional, high-stakes, deficit-model of education wasn’t serving their kids. With that initial impetus, we worked with renowned pediatric and adolescent neuropsychologists, Dr. Jonine Biesman and Dr. Jayme Neiman-Kimel, to develop Thrively’s strength taxonomy. The taxonomy is based on decades of the doctors’ combined experience studying the mind and working with children and families. It reflects a commitment to incorporating a broader definition of personality and character that is typically measured in standardized tests or physical competitions. It encompasses attributes such as focus, social justice, appreciation, and social acumen among many others. However, no strength is more important than any other, and the strength profiles we generate capture a very broad, non-judgmental picture of each child taking our assessment.
Thanks to Thrively for writing this article. You can find the original post here.
