Strengths and Success: Technology and Engineering Student Perceptions

Strengths have been hypothesized to play a role in how a person approaches leadership and problem-solving. The Clifton StrengthsFinder (CSF) is a common way to identify and measure an individual’s strengths. This research examined the role of CSF strengths in the academic success of engineering and technology students within a large, midwestern, research-intensive, land-grant university. The purpose of this research was to identify how students use their CSF strengths and to identify if students perceive a connection between strengths and their success. This research utilized semi-structured interviews with students to gather detailed qualitative information on student perceptions of success and CSF strengths. The survey collected information on student perceptions of how useful strengths are in various scenarios and if there is a connection between student success and CSF strengths. Students perceived that there were a set of strengths that make some students more successful than others, but they were not able to identify what those strengths were. Primarily, students perceived CSF strengths were useful in group academic tasks but were not useful in individual academic tasks. Based on the responses from these interviews, students are not aware of all the scenarios in which they can use their strengths.