Having taken various versions of the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type test over time I am definitely an INFP. I am not going to explain what that means. This is the internet, use your google. What this means is that the 3% of students who are like me will do the best in my classes. Everyone else will feel frustrated in some way, so I need to think about how my teaching style will affect all students.
Looking at my scores over time, I see that I am always pretty balanced in terms of introversion and extroversion. That might mean that I'm equally well suited for spending time with a class as planning and reflecting on my materials. The environment will be appropriate.
Only in romance am I ever a sensate. I'm always an iNtuitive. This means that I will usually do a good job explaining the big picture. If students can understand how a topic fits to a theme, their memory encoding and information processing will improve. If they know how a task fits into a larger goal, that will add value to the task and improve their motivation. Alternatively, they need to understand how to accomplish the task, not just why, or they will become less motivated by that frustration. So I need to do my best to provide the clearest and simplest directions and explanations possible. It helps if I think about how to modify and administer a lesson for ELL students. On that note, the best thing I can do for ES students is to model my directions and the behaviors I'm looking for. So if we are working on a project, I should demonstrate how to do that explicitly. Then I can help them by providing reflection after an activity. they also like inductive learning, and they like L2 students also need written directions. I tend to give oral directions.
IS - Introverted Sensatory students benefit from rubrics and "model work" to look at. So I'll need to make and provide examples for whatever we are doing. Q: how do I provide examples without them taking time away from class? I've been in college courses that are nothing but exemplars of the final project. Those classes weren't bad really but lacked structure even for me. Such classes would probably be good for the IS student if they included specific expectations and information in addition to the exemplars. IS students also seem to appreciate appreciation... maybe that means they are more susceptible to blatant classical conditioning? I love your work. Really. Great stuff. I promise to single it out. Also, not inclined toward group work.
ENs - In the spirit of Lao Tzu, a virtue cannot be desired if an individual already has that virtue. ENs are why the virtue "Task Oriented Behavior" became an invented term. These students also like big picture and creativity. Naturals when it comes to debates, role playing and projects. Will not feel comfortable with too much routine and details, which is fine because I probably won't give them any.
INs - like the connections to other topics. These students like to know what the purpose is. I imagine that all students like to know what the purpose is, but maybe that's because I'm an IN learner, How is the big picture is different from the purpose? In explaining the purpose could it seem like boring details? Can purpose be provided through induction? Can purpose be provided within explicit directions? These students also like to continue looking deeper and deeper into topics on their own. I'm just wondering if pandering to one type might create situations that are anathema to others.
Over time, I am fairly balanced in thinking and feeling, though I'm trying to be logical, while definitely give preference to my gut reaction. As a teacher I might emphasize on the courses affective domain very slightly over the cognitive domain, meaning that my history class will be 1/3 classical cold content and 2/3 historical-thinking and social constructivism. It will be 1/3 about operant conditioning and 2/3 about constructivism, cognition or whatever. My Thinking students will prefer more direct language from me - probably through teacher lead discussion and lecture from time to time. I can provide this with well written project explanations.
How will my F manifest? How will it affect F students versus T students? What are good ways to create balance?
Is it more important to understand my student's learning styles or to simply teach across styles to begin with?
Finally my Perceiving is much stronger than my Judging which will impact how open-ended I am about expectations, classroom management, lessons, activities, objectives and assessment. This can be solved by continuing to align each lesson to a finite goal, a concrete objective and a corresponding assessment.
http://www.oswego.edu/plsi/teachingacrosstype.htm
Thursday, July 17, 2008
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