Learners Personality Types
Hi all,
Here's another idea for you to think about :-)
When students register into a course, they are classified according to their language level, would you consider allocating students into courses based on their personality type?
Myer Briggs classifed personality into 16 different types and some organisations use this test to select their employees. Do you think those personality types characteristics would help identify learners' needs and design courses tailored to those needs?
Discussion is open.
Sahar
Hi Shefali
Well said, I do agree with you when you said "it is healthy to have a mix of personalities in a class", it's absolutely true.
But how could we relate the 4 learning styles to the personality types? Do you think that they could correlate?
Sahar
Hello,
I think the best path is to help students find out what their learning styles are so that they can organise and plan their learning and approach in the fashion which may best suit them. If time is taken to do a Myers-Briggs type test or the MI tests students may well have an 'aha moment' and realise why certain strategies aren't working for them. Our role then would be to help them explore new strategies more in line with their 'type'.
This is the Business English Forum, right? Therefore, perhaps tests like 'what kind of manager or leader are you' would also be useful. I know I did one recently which showed if you were a leader, a listener, a reflector, etc and it was quite enlightening then to see what roles and activity people would assume in a group situation. This might be useful in organising group work and projects - and I am sorry I can't remember the name of it, in fact I think the one I did was an adaptation my line manager made.
Another interesting spin-off re learning styles is the issue of neo-millennial learning styles which reflect approaches and strategies for learning in the tec age and reclassify learner types. I won't bore you with a long explanation here - just Google it, as they say. You may well recognise these types in your classes especially in a tec environment.
Now, the question of course is, the age old question of 'how do we please all of the people (students), all of the time' and the issue of catering to all - I truly believe the key is self-discovery and helping students to know themselves and exercise their autonomy and responsibility in learning - 'one man's meat is another man's poison' and all that.
Enough cliches and proverbs from me!
Over and out
Heather
I think this is a great attitude to learning styles. I consider the whole concept as more of a distraction than useful to the teacher, but this is one way to look at the whole field. I like to quote Chris Woodhead, a former chief inspector of schools in England and Wales, who said the belief that children have different styles of learning is "a recipe for disaster and exhaustion." (Smith, 2005: 10). This is because most of the time teachers appear to want to find out their students' learning styles in order to adapt their content to these various styles. By changing the perspective, the concept becomes more useful.
Kevin
Hi Heather,
It is an interesting take on the whole issue.
Thank you for drawing everyone's attention to 'neo-millennial learning styles!
Shefali
Hi
I do agree that most of the time teachers spend a lot of time thinking about adapting content to various learning styles, but at least in Business English classes I think, learners can be invited to explore their own styles.
There is always an effort made to map the learning styles with multiple intellegences and sometimes its easy for instance, a musical learner would most often be auditory but one can't stop there as he has other secondary and tertiary intellegences and also maybe, different learning styles in different contexts.
So this is a stimulating exercise and yse, challenging!
Hello again,
I found some links I'd bookmarked about neo-millennial learning styles and related issues - like the Google-isation of brains!
If you look at these, I chose these links at the time as I was investigating learning styles and museums - but I felt the info/ideas were transferrable.
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/schaller/schaller.html
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolu...
http://searchengineland.com/dr-teena-moody-chatting-about-our-brains-on-...
Cheers
Heather
Hi Heather,
Likedyour post and links. Here's another by me for jobs.ac.uk on classroom learning styles:
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers/articles/1382/learning-styles-in-the-class...
Like Dr. Mina Eaves, mentioned in the article, I dislike those old classifications of auditory, kinaesthetic, tactile as they are quite limited and the new research coming out now e.g. on Brain Based Learning (BBL) is that there are as many types of learners as there are teachers so such classifications are somewhat redundant.
Tom
Hi Heather,
Thank You for sharing the links with us. That's a great insight into the neo-millennial learning styles.
Pranayita
for me, using learning styles is the best way to reach tolerance of another person's approach to learning, teaching, etc. Once I began to find out the reasons behind someone else's way of doing things, they made more sense to me. We often question people who do something in a different way than we ourselves would do it - but knowing that it is based on a learning style can make all the difference in our perception of the situation. I don't believe in classifying students but as teachers, tolerance is often necessary. In one class I had, there was a student who often had very odd behaviour and got on everyone's nerves but mine. The reason he didn't bother me was that I was always curious about what he was going to do next so I actually found his unusual approach to be fascinating instead of annoying. Another plus for taking learning styles into account!
Marjorie
Hi Marjorie,
Yes, that's another way of looking at the whole thing.
I do like your approach.
Have you worked with people who are predominantly tactile? How do you handle those?
Shefali
Hi Shefali,
In the VAK system we call this kinesthetic. Grown-ups who have completed academic type schools have normally learned to keep this under control but this comes up alot in certain jobs and with small kids. The student I mentioned was very kinesthetic. They enjoy manipulatives, role plays, board games, moving around the classroom etc. Once they know that we understand their needs they are generally open to suggestions and you can work with them. Having said that, doing diagnosis from afar is never a good idea and every learner is different. Still an area which leaves a lot of room for investigation.
Marjorie
Hi Marjorie,
Thank you for your insights!
Currently, I have a predominantly visual learner who cannot understand client conversations over Skype as she is not able to see their lips and expressions. This is her diagnosis and I do notice that she comprehends everything people around her speak.
Any suggestions?
Shefali
Hello again
Has anyone had any experience of Prashnig's learning style pyramid?
http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/Products/Learning-Style-Analysis/P...
And teaching styles ...
http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/Products/Teaching-Style-Analysis/P...
I look around my classes and can identify so many of these learner types, I just wish I had the freedom and resources to try and capitalise on the concept. I think too that it also presents a great approach to ILC planning.
As for teaching styles, well, if you work in a big staffroom like I do, I am sure you can spot these types among your colleagues.
However, for a learning environment - just how much chaos would ensue, do you think?
Heather
Hi Heather,
Thank you for sharing the links here.
As for the teaching styles,I can even spot myself...:)
Shefali
personality is NOT learning styles or multiple intelligences!
This is a common mistake that is even confused on many MAELT and DELTA courses!!!
* Learning Style refers to how a person takes in information.
* an 'Intelligence' refers to a specific brain potential that leads to one or more disciplines valued in a culture.
* Personality refers to patterns of relatively enduring characteristics of behavior.
For example, a person can be a strong 'auditory' learner and never become a composer, but a person with strong 'Musical Intelligence' can definitely become a composer. A person with an 'extroverted' or 'introverted personality can become a composer. To conclude, it is more likely that a person with strong 'extroverted' 'musically-intelligent' 'auditory' profiles will be involved in this field, but let's be clear on the distinctness of each of these.
Please tell your friends and for God sakes READ THE LITERATURE!!!
More on Multiple Intelligences in Language Learning, including links to FREE online tests and FAQ's can be found on my website:
http://mitraining.schools.officelive.com
Josh Lange
Dresden, Germany
Umm...Langehigh,
you obviously haven't read that book entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence People".
Perhaps if you had been a little more humble, people might have actually been interested in visiting your site?
As it is, I personally will pass and hope that the next post you make is less strident.
nuff said
Tom
The Learner has her or his own attributes, motivation and baggage, and these may or may not "fit" with the subject and/or the teacher. The Learner is usually also part of a wider class group of other learners, which may help or hinder (or indeed be irrelevant to) the learning process.
Reading allows a child to become motivated and excited by the possibility that they too will one day be able to read their favorite books. Motivation is a key element to success when it comes to the teaching of the alphabet. If you store up enough motivation now, there will be plenty to last while you teach your child the alphabet.
Hi Sahar,
This is an interesting topic and I have been working on Mixed Ability as regards multiple intellegences for the past year.
I would say it is best to understand learner's learning style and therefore tailor the lessons accordingly but clasifying them according to this would mean that we are not trying to stimulate the other learning styles that are dormant.
Also, catering to various learner's styles in a lesson also offers consolidation and a comprehensiveness which may not happen if we separate them.So I think it is healthy to have a mix of personalities in a class.
Shefali