This is part of a series of using Myers Briggs personality types in the classroom. For more information, click here. For information on how to figure out your student’s MBTI type, click here.
Do you have a student that is lively, incredibly perceptive, and curious? Do they also struggle with multiple details and things that are too planned out? You may be teaching an ENFP.
Extroverted
I(n)tuition
Feelings
Perceiving
ENFPs are your students who can get by with little to no planning. In fact, the idea of a schedule or a detailed plan causes them stress, because of their perceiving nature. They are also the social, bubbly, energetic students. Does this sound familiar to you for any of the kids in your classroom?
An ENFP student is usually eager to learn and eager to help others. This can have so much advantage in the classroom because they can be used as a resource to help other students both academically and socially.
Schools and classrooms are based on policies and procedures, which are two big stressors for ENFPs. They work better in an open, free environment that is theirs to explore. So how you do find this balance with them? First, remember to be patient with them.
Our schools and careers run on schedules and while this is hard for an ENFP, it’s important for them to learn how to handle. Remember when they start showing signs of stress or having a hard time learning, it may be best to let them have free time to learn and explore how they want. That could be as simple as recess time, or as complicated as a setup station with the means to be as creative as they can.
Since ENFPs fall into the feelers category, feelings are a big part of their learning style. The more they see the benefit of learning a topic to the improvement of themselves or others, the more likely they are to find excitement on the subject. This is why they end up in professions such as doctors, counselors, or teachers.
Is your ENFP student struggling to understand a concept?
Try explaining it two or three different ways to them. They have a better time grasping ideas when they have multiple ways to understand it.
Are they having a hard time knowing how to regroup when subtracting two-digit numbers? They are active, hands-on learners. Try setting up the math problem using break-apart base ten blocks for them to hold, create, and solve the problem on their own.
More often than not, concepts are taught to students in the order the process normally functions. Again, looking at subtracting two-digit numbers using regrouping. How many teachers out there have said this rhyme with their students at least 50 times a day? I know I have. In different voices and silly hand and body movements to make it just a little more… fun?
More on the top?
No need to stop!
More on the floor?
Go next door and get ten more!
This can work so well for so many students, however, if an ENFP student is not understanding it, try jumping around to different parts of the subtraction process and explaining it. This may not make sense to you, but to them, it can make a big difference.
“ENFPs can also easily grasp a significant amount of information lacking strong conceptual connections. Whether or not material is presented in a systematic and logical way is not of great importance to them.”
Humanmetrics.com
ENFP students have great strengths and weaknesses. I know that if you take the time to find the ENFP students in your classroom and spend a little more time fostering their specific needs, it can make the biggest difference in your classroom and in their lives. That’s the power of teaching to the student, not to the test.
Cover Photo: https://www.mbtionline.com/
I found this very helpful even though I’m an ENFP student and not a teacher of one. I do have a problem with balancing my studies with my social life, but if you do not handle cases like that it’s fine. Also, I have always had some difficulty with certain subjects such as mathematics, because I do not see the need to learn them and how they will impact my life . I hope you have some advice on that.