My Learning and Teaching Style

My Learning Style

In ITL 528, took all four teaching and learning surveys. According to the results, I have a similar personality to George Washington and Cliff Claven from Cheers. Due to conflicts like that, I will take each survey with a grain of salt. However, there are quite a few places were the results of each survey overlap. Both personality surveys say I am an introvert. Though the second personality survey said I was more much more introverted than the first. Both surveys also suggested I rely on my senses more than my intuition and my judgment more than my perception. The initial survey suggests I feel my way through problems more than I think my way through them. The second personality survey reversed that.

I wasn’t surprised by this. I think I prefer to think my way through things, but often due to impatience, I will look for a quicker road feeling my way to the answer.

The initial survey suggests that I am a quiet, serious observer of people, listening intently and getting to know a great deal about them. It suggests that I pay attention to emotions and feelings. Further, it suggests that I have deeply-held values that direct the things that I do and say. I take a caring and sensitive approach to others, more so than may be apparent to others because I would show my feelings in acts of kindness rather than in direct statements.

How does or will your personality type affect your relationships with your students? Being an introvert makes me more sensitive to students who don’t want to put themselves on the line. However, being mostly a facilitator is probably not the best match for the current climate of education. That relates back to being a verbal introvert. As someone who had bad experiences with group work in college, I preferred instructors who lectured and tested. If you are a verbal introvert who retains facts easily, it’s a great path to earn a high grade. However, it’s important to understand that those grades aren’t great indicators of subject mastery. And just because I did well with a listen and lecture models of education, this isn’t an ideal strategy for everyone.

My Teaching Style

According to the second teaching survey, I am mostly a facilitator. My next most common teaching styles are subject expert, formal authority, delegator and personal model.  According to my learning style profile I have a high to moderate preference for reflection over action. It also suggests I am much more verbal than visual. And, that I tend to think of things slightly more globally than locally.

Do I believe your personality type had an impact on the choice of my subject area? I know that my learning style and personality influences the subject area I chose to teach. Part of the reason I prefer English over subjects like math and science is the flexibility of the answers. In math, there is one correct answer to each problem. This isn’t a great path for creative or artistic thinkers. Humanities is simply a better subject for someone who wants to feel their way through a problem rather than think their way through it.

How will my teaching and/or learning style affect my teaching? Being a verbal facilitator who grew up uncomfortable with groups has forced me to expand my idea of what it means to teach. I have brief interludes in my own education that help me understand this. When a Spanish teacher asked me to visualize a “Carta” is a cart full of letters, it was horrible advice. I have no visual memory. Of course, that teacher never stopped to ask if my learning style differed from hers. I doubt she ever considered it. So, how will these results affect my teaching style? It will force me to broaden them, so that I am not only reaching students who learn in manners like myself. Knowing my own learning style ensures that I don’t over rely on it, simply because it is comfortable to me.

Resources

Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.webtools.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/

Personality Test & Personality Type Test, Find who you are for Free!. (2019). Retrieved from http://kisa.ca/personality/

Personality Test, in-depth analysis of Isabel Briggs Myers types. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.metarasa.com/mmdi/questionnaire/

Teaching Style Survey. (2019). Retrieved from http://longleaf.net/teachingstyle.html