The phrase "deficit model" refers to a way of thinking that focuses on a person's weaknesses or lacks rather than their strengths or abilities. It suggests that the person is lacking something and needs to be fixed or improved upon. Full definition
The social reproduction of inequality can not end until we move past deficit models of schooling that require students to abandon their culture in order to become a success. (gse.harvard.edu)
However, many school - based interventions use deficit models of behavior and rarely attend to the unique developmental needs of Black school aged boys. (casponline.org)
From single to multiple deficit models of developmental disorders. (emedicine.medscape.com)