Teaching is full of rights and wrongs, new ways of handling old problems, curriculum changes , different teaching and learning styles. To add fuel to the never ending fire, I ask you, how does your personality style impact your teaching and can the personality of students influence their learning style? As a teacher, parent and a personality profile facilitator, I have witnessed the impact of how knowing ‘who you are’ and what makes you ‘tick’, can improve your teaching style and help you understand your students.
I use The Myer Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a personality profiling instrument which provides tools to help build understanding about ourselves and others and how to work with our differences. It sorts our preferences into four areas, introversion/Extraversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling and Judging/Perceiving. These preferences are innate, just as the
hand that you ‘naturally’ write with is. You can use the opposite but it requires greater effort and concentration lacking the ease and familiarity of the preferred hand. Today I am looking at the MBTI preferences Judging and Perceiving and how these affect
the way we teach and how students respond.
Judging and P
erceiving Preferences. What are they?
When determining how much structure or flexibility an individual needs in the world the Judging and Perceiving types have different outlooks. Those who use their Judging preference prefer order and structure in their world. They are usually organised and planned. They are comfortable with the timetables, lists and diaries that are used to define their movements throughout the days and weeks ahead. They enjoy working progressively on the completion of one project before beginning another and find deadlines easy to meet. Then there are the Perceiving types. These people prefer flexibility and adapt easily to change. They enjoy responding to the moment and are not bound by lists and timetables. Time is taken exploring all options before decisions are made. They get pleasure from working on several projects at once and they are energised as the deadline nears, they make deadlines….just!
J’s and P’s in the classroom
These two approaches to ‘the world’ impact both teachers and students in many ways, both positive and negative. The positives of the Judging teaching style are that work is usually marked and returned promptly, lessons are well structured, expectations are made clear and ground rules set and adhered to. One negative of the Judging preference for order and structure is that it sometimes overrides the humanitarian aspect of teaching. For example, my daughter dreaded being late for a particular class where the classroom door was closed the minute the lesson began and the ‘offender’ was made to wait outside for a period of time without any question of validity for the delay. This method certainly got students into the teacher’s class on time but his need for control made this a process of humility rather than a desire to be there. The positive aspects of the teacher who prefers the Perceiving style is that they create a relaxed classroom environment with ease, where flexibility allows various new incidental experiences to be enjoyed. The timetable is effortlessly altered to fit in with the changes that occur during the day to day running of the classroom. However, this too has its negative side as discipline and classroom routines that are important for learning can be neglected and the subject matter that needs to be taught and reinforced ceases to be the focus. My daughter had some teachers for whom she was never on time. Being a P herself, she would blithely say, “I don’t need to be on time for Miss Mason’s class she doesn’t care, she wouldn’t notice anyway.”
Be aware of who you are!
These are extremes, are you too strict or too lax? Most teachers, whether Judging or Perceiving types do find ways of creating a classroom environment where students want to be on time! My daughter is always on time for teachers she respects and admires! Judging and Perceiving teaching and student preference and the marking process. When an assignment is given and a due date set for submission the students who prefer the Judging preference who will work steadily towards the deadline. My ‘Judging’ son even finished an essay before the teacher had assigned it to him because he knew what the topic would be and wanted to get it out of the way! My ‘Perceiving’ daughter however, delays much of her work until the final days, sometimes hours, before the assignment time limit. She is then however, energised by the last minute adrenalin surge as she throws herself into an “all nighter” to get her work finished on time.
Can you relate to these scenarios?
These Judging and Perceiving work styles are different but the end result is that both children get A’s for their work. Perceiving types can meet a deadline but are also happy to postpone it. A frequent frustration for my son are his Perceiving preference teachers, who often change the deadline at the last minute for Perceiving students who had not yet completed, some not even started, their assignment. His outrage is that the last minute Perceiving students are rewarded for their tardiness and given extra time with no loss of marks and his effort at meeting the due date is not rewarded! The opposite in this scenario is the ‘Judging’ teacher who does not compromise, even when lateness can be justified and fails students for not meeting the deadline.
However, it is a fact of life that when students join the workforce, no matter what their preference, finishing tasks on time is a life skill that they need to develop and school is the place to foster this expertise. Strategies should be in place for overdue work, such as loss of marks for each day the assignment is late. This gives the student consequences thus allowing those who complete their work on time to be rewarded and those that hand it in late to be penalised.
The negatives of these two teaching and study styles are as follows. The J’s desire for quick closure can throw them when new information is disclosed near the deadline and they may have to rewrite all or sections of their work to include this. The P’s last minute dash can sometimes be too late if they underestimate the time needed for researching and putting their work together. Therefore their dilemma is that their work can lack important information and the flow that is needed.
Balance is the key. We are all unique, but in understanding and acknowledging the preferences of both yourself and your students you can teach with greater knowledge, clarity and empathy.
How much structure do you need in your world? Let’s find out!