Background and Aims:
Recent research has highlighted the positive impact of strengths use among employees in different occupations, and has also suggested that it may be especially important in education institutions – aimed to nurture individuals’ fulfillment and development. Following previous research that has demonstrated the positive effects of school principals’ strengths use at work on the teachers they lead, in the present study we focused on teachers and explored the associations of their strengths use at work with their students’ strengths use attitudes, and functioning in school. Acknowledging the potential importance of teachers’ strengths use, we also explored organizational factors that may contribute to their strengths use.
Hypotheses:
Teachers who feel more supported and connected in the school will tend to use their strengths more in their daily work.
Teachers' strengths use will be associated with their students' strengths use, school engagement, positive affect, and social efficacy.
Method (Sample and Design):
We surveyed 31 homeroom teachers and their 562 students, who completed self-report measures of their strengths use, relationships, attitudes, and functioning in school.
Results:
Teachers’ self-reported strengths use was associated with students’ reports on the relationships with their teachers and their motivation – which were both associated, in turn, with students’ strengths use, school engagement, positive affect, and social efficacy. The organizational factors which contributed to the variance in teachers’ strengths use were mainly social, and included supervisor and colleague support, and a sense of school belonging.
Scientific Contribution:
The study highlights the potential contribution of teachers’ strengths use to students’ relationships with their teachers and to their motivation and functioning in school, and suggest that enhancing the social support teachers receive in school may enhance their strengths use – and contribute to its resulting benefits for students.