Myers-Briggs [Isabel] Type Indicator

Uses a four-letter symbol to represent your personality type, and to suggest occupations best suited to you.

Used in a variety of settings: big biz (organizational behavior & team-building), schools…

From Wikipedia…

• Based on CG Jung’s psychological types theory
• Wikipedia: “a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions”
• Consists of Attitudes (extroverted [E], introverted [I]), Functions (sensing [S], intuition [N], thinking [T] and feeling [F]), Lifestyle (judgment [J], perception [P])

From literacynet.org

• The concept of learning styles has great potential to enhance teaching and learning in the adult basic education classroom. It is not a new teaching method, but an approach to instruction that recognizes the individual talents and strengths of each learner.
• Application has generally been restricted to K-12 school settings.
• [Applies not just to learners but to teachers] Studies show that the typical teacher in higher education is an intuitive type, preferring abstract and theoretical ideas. This learning style preference is reflected in how learning is organized and delivered.
• By learning about the learning styles preferences of students, teachers can design curriculum, instruction and evaluation that takes advantage of students’ style strengths in helping them to achieve their learning goals.

On eric.ed.gov

A study of the Myers-Briggs personality types for graduating pharmacy students and faculty found gender and type differences among and between students and faculty. It is suggested that both students and faculty must be sensitive to and understand the preferences of the other group to maximize teaching and learning.

From WikiBooks…

Sixteen types, four basic temperaments/areas of personality.

• Extraversion vs. Introversion (E vs. I) describes how a person gets energized
• Sensing vs. Intuition (S vs. N) describes how a person takes in information
• Thinking vs. Feeling (T vs. F) describes the means a person uses to make decisions
• Judging vs. Perceiving (J vs. P) describes the speed with which a person makes decisions

And in more detail:

• Extroverts appear outgoing and are energized by people, and are very effective in pursuits that involve other people. Extroverts tend to be sensation-seeking, spontaneous, and gregarious. They enjoy crowds, noise, and stimulation. Extroverts also tend to have more sexual partners in the course of their life than Introverts, though this isn’t to say that all Extroverts are more promiscuous than all Introverts.
• Introverts are rested and energized by solitude, and are very effective in solitary pursuits. An introvert is a person who prefers to process thoughts internally. Introverts tend to think before they speak. The word is also used informally to refer to somebody who prefers solitary activities to social ones, which is more of a behavioural than cognitive definition. Introverts tend to be seen as quiet and reserved, which is often confused with a lack of confidence by louder, more extroverted people. They often perform well in analytical roles that require intelligence or logic, but place less emphasis on social interactions and “people skills”. Introverts are usually a minority in the general population, and they can often be sidelined by culture or society, which in many cases favours the more common extroverted style of behaviour.
• Sensors want, trust, and remember facts, and usually describe themselves as “practical”. For a Sensor, intuition is untrustworthy and might seem like mental static. Sensation as a perceiving mode of consciousness focuses on heightening reality. Guardians share the combination SJ, while Artisans share the combination SP.
• Intuitives prefer metaphor, analogy, and logic, and tend to reason from first principles and hunches. While Sensors pride themselves on living in the real world, Intuitives pride themselves on seeing possibilities. This can cause conflict. Intuition as a perceiving mode of consciousness filters experience through the unconscious mind. Intuition focuses on possibilities rather than realities. Idealists share the combination NF, while Rationals share the combination NT.
• Thinkers use impersonal means of reasoning: logic and verifiable experience.
• Feelers prefer personal reasoning: value judgements and emotions. Thinkers often find Feelers muddle-headed. Feelers often find Thinkers cold and inhuman.
• Judgers prefer to come to decisions, and move on. They may feel betrayed if a decision is “reopened”. They are prone to hastiness, but get things done.
• Perceivers prefer to leave their options open to perceive new possibilities and processes as long as possible. They tend to mourn opportunities lost to premature decisions. They are prone to analysis paralysis, but rarely make permanent mistakes.

It is important to keep in mind that each dimension reveals a person’s inborn preference with how he or she is most comfortable operating, and does not say that any person will always retain his preferred dimension.

Criticisms of the test and its application…

[also from WikiBooks]

• The MBTI is not yet scientifically proven: Skeptics, including many psychologists, argue that the MBTI has not been validated by double-blind tests (in which participants accept reports written for other participants, and are asked whether or not the report suits them) and thus does not qualify as a scientific assessment. Some even demonstrate that profiles can apparently seem to fit any person by confirmation bias, ambiguity of basic terms. and the Byzantine complexity that allows any kind of behavior to fit any personality type.
• A Temptation to Pigeonhole: Another argument says that, while the MBTI is useful in self-understanding, it is commonly used to pigeonhole people or for self-pigeonholing. Supporting arguments include:

It emphasizes each person being one specific type rather than each person using a certain type of thinking most of the time.

Real people often do not fit easily into one of sixteen types because they use different styles of thinking at different times. This is why there have been questions about answering the indicator (like “do I answer the indicator according to how I act at work or at home”). This is also why some people have trouble finding a type that really “fits” them.

Predicting how a person will react based on a personality test that only measures their predominant style of thinking is foolish. Excusing your own bad or inefficient behavior based on such a test is also foolish.

Learning Styles

A bigger concept under which Myers-Briggs falls. The idea that certain personality traits influence learning, and that knowledge about these traits can help teachers (and others) focus instruction toward individual strengths. The theory behind the application of such tests to education (I said that.)

From a class description of Richard Felder at Cal State Dominguez Hills

Students preferentially take in and process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily and in fits and starts. Teaching methods also vary. Some instructors lecture, others demonstrate or lead students to self-discovery; some focus on principles and others on applications; some emphasize memory and others understanding.

When mismatches exist between learning styles of most students in a class and the teaching style of the professor, the students may become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on tests, get discouraged about the courses, the curriculum, and themselves, and in some cases change to other curricula or drop out of school. Professors, confronted by low test grades, unresponsive or hostile classes, poor attendance and dropouts, know something is not working. They may become overly critical of their students (making things even worse) or begin to wonder if they are in the right profession. Most seriously, society loses potentially excellent professionals. To overcome these problems, professors should strive for a balance of instructional methods (as opposed to trying to teach each student exclusively according to his or her preferences.) If the balance is achieved, all students will be taught partly in a manner they prefer, which leads to an increased comfort level and willingness to learn, and partly in a less preferred manner, which provides practice and feedback in ways of thinking and solving problems which they may not initially be comfortable with but which they will have to use to be fully effective professionals.

From a University of MN at Duluth handbook

You have probably noticed that when you try to learn something new that you prefer to learn by listening to someone talk to you about the information. Some people prefer to read about a concept to learn it; others need to see a demonstration of the concept. Learning Style Theory proposes that different people learn in different ways and that it is good to know what your own preferred learning style is.

From Brown…

The link between personality and cognition is known as “cognitive style.” When cognitive styles are related to the educational context, “where affective and physiological factors are intermingled,” they’re often called “learning styles.”

“Cognitive, affective and physiological traits are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment.” (Keefe, 1979)

“Learning styles mediate between emotion and cognition.” (Brown) For example, a reflective style grows from a reflective personality or mood, while an impulsive style usually comes from an impulsive emotional state.

Impossible to list all the variables people have come up with over the years. Ehrman and Leaver (2003) came up with nine styles related to SLA:

• Field independence-dependence (distinguishing parts from a whole; find the hidden monkeys in the tree)
• Random (non-linear) v. sequential (linear)
• Global v. particular
• Inductive v. deductive
• Synthetic v. analytic
• Analog v. digital
• Concrete v. abstract
• Leveling v. sharpening
• Impulsive v. reflective

There’s also (or is this overlapping?) left- v. right-brain dominance, ambiguity tolerance, reflectivity v. impulsivity, visual and auditory and kinesthetic styles.

Multiple Intelligences

From Wikipedia

The theory of multiple intelligences’ was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983, to more accurately define the concept of intelligence and address whether methods which claim to measure intelligence (or aspects thereof) are truly scientific.

Gardner’s theory argues that intelligence, particularly as it is traditionally defined, does not sufficiently encompass the wide variety of abilities humans display. In his conception, a child who masters multiplication easily is not necessarily more intelligent overall than a child who struggles to do so. The second child may be stronger in another kind of intelligence, and therefore may best learn the given material through a different approach, may excel in a field outside of mathematics, or may even be looking through the multiplication learning process at a fundamentally deeper level that hides a potentially higher mathematical intelligence than in the one who memorizes the concept easily.

Gardner’s categories of intelligence:

• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Verbal-linguistic
• Logical-mathematical
• Naturalistic
• Intrapersonal
• Visual-spatial
• Musical

Some people have suggested he left out stuff, like “religious.”

From Brown…

Gardner’s theory was controversial at first, and revolutionary. Blew apart traditional thinking about “intelligence” as purely cognitive (and in language-learning, heavily based on memory). “Linguistic” and “logical-mathematical” are characteristics of traditional indicators of intelligence, but Gardner asserted we were missing much by limiting our definition as such.

Another researcher, Robert Sternberg (1988, 1985) has “also shaken up the world of traditional intelligence measurement.” He has a “triarchic” view consisting of three types of “smartness”:

• Componential ability for analytical thinking
• Experiential ability to engage in creative thinking
• Contextual ability (street-smarts)

He said that too much of psychometric theory involves mental speed, when other factors are equally important: insight common sense, practical problem-solving, etc.

One other view is from Daniel Goleman, who studied “emotional intelligence” (1998, 1995) [at which I should excel]. He came up with the idea of EQ (Emotional Quotient) as being central to intellectual functioning.

Educators have been drawing from these theories in their classroom settings.