Why Can'T My Students Do It My Way?
Thomas C. Thompson
The Citadel
Diversity. The word describes the disparate ways my wife
and I approach problem solving tasks. When faced with a problem,
I generally begin by talking about it. I talk just long enough
to clarify the problem, then I start spinning out possible
solutions, leaving the details for later. Of course, my approach
may produce some unworkable solutions or cause me to get some of
my facts wrong, but at least I'm doing something. For me, "doing
something" (even if it's wrong) is the vital first step to
getting anywhere. As I see it, mine is a logical, effective
method of problem solving.
From my wife's perspective, though, my approach is more
reckless than worthwhile. A detail-oriented person, she's more
interested in accuracy than in speed. She likes to find out all
the details, then consider them systematically. While I'm
rushing to get lots of ideas on the table so I can start sorting
through them, she's methodically collecting all the details so
she can see how they might fit together. Furthermore, she's
usually doing it quietly. She works best when she can sit
quietly with her energy turned inward, and she comes up with some
good solutions when I leave her alone long enough to let her
think.
So what do these two descriptions have to do with diversity
in the English classroom? They describe two possible approaches
that students might take to problem solving--approaches that
might seem as reckless (and frustrating) to teachers as my
actions can seem to my wife (or vice versa). Understanding these
and other approaches can both reduce teachers' frustration levels
in class and help them plan assignments that will give a greater
variety of students the opportunity to draw on their
strengths.
Type Theory and Personality Preferences
One way to explain such differences is through personality
type theory. This theory holds that, just as we can identify
people as "right-handed" or "left-handed" because they tend to
use one hand more often (and with greater skill) than the other,
we can also identify other consistent patterns in the way people
act. Those patterns, or "preferences," are evident in the ways
we focus our attention, take in information, make decisions, and
manage our environments. As Isabel Myers explains in Gifts
Differing (which itself is an extension of the work of Swiss
psychologist Carl Jung) some people focus their attention and
energy consistently on their environment, while others tend to
turn their attention inward. When taking in new information,
some people attend to facts and details, while others attend more
to ideas and relationships. In the language of personality type,
these four preferences are called Extroversion, Introversion,
Sensing Perception, and Intuitive Perception. In the examples
with which I began, my approach to problem solving reflects my
preferences for Extroversion and Intuitive Perception, whereas my
wife's approach reflects her preferences for Introversion and
Sensing Perception. ("Preferences" are important here. Just as
right-handed people are able to write left handed,
Extroverts are able to use introversion, but they typically
prefer extroversion and are therefore generally more
comfortable and more proficient when using it.) Specifically, I
tend to approach problem solving by turning my energy outward--by
talking about my ideas, discussing the problem, and getting lots
of ideas out on the table--while my wife prefers to turn inward
so she can consider alternatives without external distractions.
Further, I attend to the "big picture"--concepts, relationships,
ideas--while my wife attends to the numerous details that make up
the big picture. Although we may both arrive at satisfactory
solutions, our paths are quite different.
As long as we can each work in the ways that we prefer,
there's no problem. When I am forced to work quietly, however
(as, for example, a student might have to do when confronted with
a complex essay question), or when my wife is given too few
details (as when a student is given only the broad outlines of a
research question), difficulties arise. Sometimes, problems are
unavoidable: to allow students to discuss an essay question
during the exam period, for instance, could defeat the purpose of
the exam. At other times, though, teachers can take steps to
help students draw on their strengths while also challenging them
to improve their less developed skills.
Practical Differences Associated with the Eight
Preferences
The chart below shows the eight preferences identified by
personality type theory: Extroversion and Introversion, Sensing
Perception and Intuitive Perception, Thinking Judgment and
Feeling Judgment, and a Judging Attitude and a Perceiving
Attitude. Teachers need not master the intricacies of type
theory to use it in the classroom; simply recognizing and
acknowledging the existence of differences can improve
instruction.
- EXTROVERSION - directs
energy and attention
outward, toward people and
objects.
- SENSING PERCEPTION -
attends to measurable
observable facts.
- THINKING JUDGMENT -
analyzes facts impersonally
and objectively.
- JUDGING ATTITUDE -
controls and regulates
events in a planned, orderly
way.
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- INTROVERSION - directs
energy and attention inward,
toward ideas.
- INTUITIVE PERCEPTION -
attends to relationships and
possibilities.
- FEELING JUDGMENT - weighs
facts and values personally
and subjectively.
- PERCEIVING ATTITUDE -
adapts readily to change and
welcomes spontaneity.
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Teachers' preferences on each of these four scales can be
reflected in classroom management, in teaching styles, and even
in the ways they evaluate student learning. With respect to
classroom management, for example, teachers who prefer
Extroversion are more likely to be comfortable with higher levels
of activity in the classroom, whereas those who prefer
Introversion are more likely to prefer a quiet environment (in
which students can "hear themselves think"). Teachers who prefer
a Judging Attitude generally like more structure than those who
prefer a Perceiving Attitude. Someone who prefers Sensing,
Thinking, and Judging is probably comfortable with the order,
logic, and structure of a row-and-column arrangement of desks;
someone who prefers Intuition, Feeling, and Perceiving may be
stifled by a row-and-column arrangement, preferring instead to
try a variety of arrangements, perhaps even trying different
arrangements for different classes or different assignments. No
particular method of classroom management in inherently "good" or
"bad," of course, but an Extroverted student might have a hard
time generating or evaluating ideas in an Introverted teacher's
quiet classroom, and an Introverted student might have difficulty
coming up with quick responses to an Extroverted teacher's
discussion questions.
Personality preferences can also be reflected in teaching
styles. In People Types and Tiger Stripes, Gordon
Lawrence describes several such differences (79-80):
- Teachers who prefer Extroversion are more likely to give
students some choice about what they study and how they study it,
and to stay attuned to changes in student attention; those who
prefer Introversion are more likely to structure learning
activities through their choice of learning materials, to stay
attuned to the ideas they are teaching, and to center control in
themselves.
- Sensing teachers tend to emphasize facts, practical
information, and concrete skills; Intuitive teachers tend to
emphasize concepts, relationships, and the implications of facts
for understanding larger problems.
- Thinking types, whose decision making is generally logical
and analytical, are likely to give less feedback to students
about their performance, and what feedback they give is likely to
be objective; Feeling types, whose decision making is generally
influenced by personal values, are likely to give more feedback.
Further, Thinking types are likely to focus on the class as a
whole, and to have students focus on what the teacher is doing;
Feeling types are likely to move from student to student, or to
deal with several individual students at a time, and to have
students spend more time on their own individual work.
- Judging types, who have a preference for order and closure,
are likely to adhere more strictly to structure and schedules;
Perceiving types, who prefer spontaneity, are likely to encourage
more movement around the classroom, more socializing in groups,
and more open-ended discussions.
Despite these patterns, type theory is not deterministic;
it does not suggest that all Judging types will have the same
teaching style, or even that all teachers who prefer
Extroversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging will have the same
style. Then again, not all right-handed people hold a pencil the
same way or have the same handwriting. In general, however,
right-handed people do tend to slant their letters to the right,
whereas left-handed people tend to slant their letters to the
left. Similarly, Judging types tend to use teaching methods that
lend themselves to closure, whereas Perceiving types tend to use
methods that lend themselves to open-endedness. Further, just as
a right-handed person may find it difficult to write left-handed,
a Sensing student may find it difficult to understand an
assignment, probably given by an Intuitive teacher, that requires
extensive use of Intuitive skills.
When Preferences Clash
Suppose that Sensing teacher, who leans to attending to
details and putting them together sequentially to form a concept,
tries to teach an Intuitive student, to whom details are of
little use without first having a concept with which to make
sense of them. The teacher is likely to teach from the specific
to the general, but the student may learn best by moving from the
general to the specific: their preferred ways of teaching and
learning simply clash.
To offer a concrete example, Gordon Lawrence tells of a
student at a diesel mechanics school who was given a diagram of
an alternator, then given a defective alternator and asked to
take it apart, fix it, and reassemble it, using the diagram as
his guide. Frustrated with the diagram, the student simply took
the alternator apart, carefully laid the pieces in a pattern, saw
the problem, fixed it, then reversed his steps to put the working
alternator back together again. Only after this process
did the diagram make sense (41). In this example, the student
was a Sensing type who had difficulty following instructions that
called for Intuitive skills.
Difficulties go beyond merely giving assignments or
designing test items that don't make sense to some students,
though. Students with type preferences opposite from the
teacher's are not only more likely to have difficulty adjusting
to that teacher's teaching style and methods of evaluation, but
are also more likely to produce work that fails to meet that
teacher's expectations--and, ultimately, to receive lower grades.
Stanislaus Sobczyk found just such results in a study of 35
teachers and 217 eleventh grade students: the Intuitive teachers
gave significantly higher end-of-semester grades to Intuitive
students than to Sensing students, and Judging teachers gave
significantly higher grades to Judging students than to
Perceiving students. In a similar study, Georgia Lamphere found
that teachers not only gave higher academic ratings to students
with similar type preferences, but also rated them higher on
social behavior and interpersonal relationships.
These results should not be particularly surprising. When
people have the same type preferences, they also "tend to have in
common whatever qualities result from the exercise of
those preferences" (Myers and McCaulley 19, their emphasis).
That is, they tend to have similar ways of viewing the world and
making sense of it. In effect, they speak the same language, so
they understand each other. People with opposite type
preferences don't speak quite the same language, so they don't
understand each other as well. In the case of a student and
teacher with opposite preferences, the student is not likely to
understand or produce what the teacher wants, and the teacher is
not likely to understand or appreciate what the student produces.
Lower grades and higher levels of frustration naturally
follow.
Allowing for Diversity in the Classroom
Trying to teach all students in ways that appeal to their
personality preferences, even if it were possible, would
not be the way to improve communication in the classroom.
In fact, such a strategy would probably create more problems than
it solved, since teachers would have to use methods they found
awkward or inadequate. Besides, if students were taught only in
ways
consistent with their own preferences--and were therefore never
required to develop skills associated with the opposite
preferences--they would have little opportunity to grow. Having
a variety of teachers over the years virtually insures that
students will encounter at least some teachers with preferences
similar to their own and some teachers with preferences different
from their own. Within any given class, however, the teacher can
develop teaching practices that will both allow students to
utilize skills associated with their own preferences and
challenge them to develop skills associated with the opposite
preferences.
One of the simplest ways to increase the chances that
students will be able to utilize their strengths is to provide
options. When designing exams, many teachers automatically
include several kinds of test items: matching, true/false, and
fill in the blank items most often test knowledge of facts,
whereas short answer and essay questions generally require a
synthesis of those facts. Even for a single kind of test item,
however, there is room for variety: Some items could require
retrieval of factual information, others could require synthesis
of facts, others could require analysis, and still others could
focus on personal implications of actions or policies. Given
this kind of variety, some items are sure to draw on each
student's strengths, while others will challenge less developed
skills. Although not every assignment can have options that
appeal to every preference, a series of assignments (over the
course of a semester) can easily provide enough variety to draw
on the skills associated with the different preferences. A
teacher who generally assigns individual projects, for example,
could occasionally have students work in pairs or small groups.
One who usually lectures or conducts teacher-centered discussions
(that is, discussions in which student comments are directed to
the teacher) could occasionally step back and let a student be in
charge of leading a discussion. Someone who typically conducts
fast-paced discussions could write the topic on the board before
class (or even announce it a class period in advance) to give
students extra time to consider their ideas before being called
on to talk about them. A teacher whose assignments generally
focus on collecting and analyzing factual information could
create an occasional assignment in which students take facts from
one situation and apply them to a different one, or perhaps one
which shifts the focus from the facts themselves to the
implications of those facts for a particular group of people.
The key is simply to provide variety--an occasional change from
the usual way of doing things.
Another simple strategy is to let a friend or colleague read
your assignments to see whether they make sense. Because I know
that I tend to write "for" other Intuitives, I usually ask my
wife (a Sensing type) to read my exams and point out any test
items or instructions that are not clear to her. I also like to
discuss class activities with her because I know I tend to plan
Extroverted activities, and she can tell me how she (as an
Introvert) would respond. Being an Extrovert probably makes it
easier for me to talk with colleagues about my classes, but I
find that sharing syllabi and exams and discussing assignments
helps improve my teaching, both by reminding me of the variety of
ways to approach a given lesson and by letting me know what
"works" for students in other classes.
Personality Preferences in the English Classroom
Personality type theory can help explain many curious
phenomena that occur in English classrooms. For example, when
asked to select an essay representing their "best" work, some
students will choose one that is technically sound and
grammatically correct (even though it may not be particularly
lively or engaging), while others will choose an essay they
enjoyed writing or that focuses on a topic they care about (even
though it may have more errors than other essays). Those who use
objective criteria are likely to be using their Thinking
judgment, which is based on objective analysis; those who use
more personal criteria are probably using their Feeling judgment,
which emphasizes values over objectivity. Introverts, who tend
to work ideas out in their heads before committing them to paper,
may be reluctant to revise their papers--not because they object
to drafting, but because they have been through numerous (mental)
drafts already. Extroverts, who tend to act first and think
later, may write first drafts that ramble excessively--not
because they can't think clearly, but because they work out their
thinking on paper (or by talking). Students who can't seem to
put anything on paper until the night before it is due may be
Perceiving types who want to keep all their options open as long
as possible. Judging types, on the other hand, are usually on
time with their assignments, but in order to finish their work on
schedule, they may cut off inquiry before they have gathered
adequate information for the task at hand. Because they work
best when attending to rules and following step-by-step
instructions, Sensing types may seem overly focused on the
details of an assignment ("How many words? Does it have to
follow a certain format? How many sources have to be cited?")
rather than on the larger goals. Intuitive types, who prefer the
challenge of creating something new and different, may seem to
try to avoid conforming to any rules set up for assignments.
Conclusion
A general understanding of type concepts is enough to help
explain student behaviors and reduce teacher frustration. (For a
thorough discussion of the connections between type preferences
and writing processes, however, I recommend George Jensen and
John DiTiberio's Personality and the Teaching of
Composition.) For me, recognizing that not all students talk
to sort out their thoughts (as I do) can help reduce my
frustration with "shy, reserved" students who are actually just
trying to do their work in the way that works best for them.
Realizing that questions about length and format of an essay may
be necessary for Sensing students (because they are uncomfortable
starting a task until they know the precise guidelines within
which they must work) lets me see that their questions are not
necessarily as trivial as I might otherwise think. Knowing that
Thinking students value objectivity over personal reactions helps
me understand why some students focus so much on presenting
material "in a clear, organized fashion" that they lose sight of
their audience. Understanding that Perceiving students may be
waiting until they gather all the information possible may help
me see their actions as on-task rather than lazy. In short, when
I can recognize differences in learning styles (and how some
students' learning styles may be at odds with my natural teaching
style), and can accept those differences as legitimate rather
than disruptive or stubborn, my classroom becomes more pleasant
and less stressful for both me and my students.
Works Cited
Jensen, George H. and John K. DiTiberio. Personality and the
Teaching of Composition. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1989.
Lamphere, Georgina Ines. "The Relationship Between Teacher and
Student Personality and Its Effects on Teacher Perception of
Student." DAI 46 (1985): 1564A. United States International
University.
Lawrence, Gordon. People Types and Tiger Stripes: A Practical
Guide to Learning Styles, 2nd ed. Gainesville, FL: Center
for Applications of Psychological Type, 1983.
Murphy, Elizabeth. The Developing Child: Using Jungian Type
to Understand Children. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting
Psychologists Press, 1992.
Myers, Isabel, and Mary McCaulley. Manual: A Guide to the
Development and Use of the MBTI. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting
Psychologists Press, 1985.
Myers, Isabel Briggs, with Peter B. Myers. Gifts
Differing, Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press,
1980.
Sobczyk, J. M. Stanislaus. "The Relationship Between
Teacher-Student Personality Type Alignment and Teacher-Assigned
End-of-Semester Grades." DAI 47 (1986): 2533A.
University of San Francisco.
