Different Personalities
One of the first issues I ran into as a new instructor was how to deal with the many different and often-competing personalities of my students. I had to identify the ones that wanted/needed the most attention as well as the ones that weren't paying attention and were daydreaming. It helped to introduce different types of activities, especially ones that made students get out of their chairs and interact with me and with the other students.
Hi Bonnie,
At my institution we have implemented giving our students personality and learning style tests upon their enrollment so that we can better assist them early in their program. Everyone learns differently and everyone's personality is different.
Patricia Scales
It has been suggested to me that I should consider administering a personality test to students early on in the course. However, I prefer to get to know each student, his/her learning style and personality. It's really like a puzzle. As an instructor we need to figure out ways to reach the various types of personalities in our classes and to control behavior of some of them! This requires preparation and the ability to think on our feet.
I found once I taught each kind of learner - audio, visual, tactile - in every lecture/class period, it helped a lot. It's more work on our part, but more rewarding as well.
Getting to know each student and their personality styles was invaluable to me as a new instructor.
Different personalities tend to favor particular learning styles and methods of learning over others.
The more knowledge of the different personalities assisted me to better plan my instructinal delivery.
