Conclusion: Using MBTI In The Classroom

the youth of our future is inspiring

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here.

Over the past several weeks I’ve been writing about using Myers-Briggs in the classroom and how it can be beneficial as a teacher. Last year I wrote about each specific type in the classroom, but more recently I’ve written about the more broad types: Extroverted students, introverted students, intuitive types, sensing types, etc, etc. 

I wrote these posts because while using MBTI in the classroom is useful and helpful, it can be very difficult to type every single one of your students and know how best to help them. So instead, I broke it into bigger categories. I think it can be easier to pick apart introverts versus extroverts, judgers versus perceivers, etc. This can make it more attainable for teachers and aids in the classroom to learn more about each child and help them in the best way they can. 

I truly believe that with a little bit of research and effort to understand Myers-Briggs deeper, it can become an incredibly useful tool for learning more about your students, yourself, and your colleagues. 

You can see all of the posts here.

Have you used the knowledge of MBTI in your teaching and how have you found that it helps you in your teaching? 

Teaching the Judging Type: Using Myers Briggs in the Classroom

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here.

In the Myers-Briggs world, Judging vs Perceiving is how we interact with the outside world. Between the two, we will use both of them, but our natural instincts are to move toward one versus the other. This post is focusing on the Judging types in the classroom. 

Traits that can define a Judging type: 

Organized. 

Always planning. 

Neat and tidy. 

Knows what they are doing in the future. 

How to pick out a Judging type in the classroom: These will be your students with the neat and tidy desks. They will be the ones constantly asking what the rest of the day, week, and month hold as far as what they will be doing in school. 

How to support a Judging type in the classroom: Keep things as consistent as possible. Trust that majority of time they are on top of their assignments and can likely handle more, if needed. Giving them an overview of the day’s schedule can be wonderful for them, they want to know what’s next and how these events affect other events. 

How to help a Judging type grow in the classroom: Give them support through activities that are in a go-with-the-flow situation instead of structured and predictable. Pair them with a Perceiving type during a group project to give them the opportunity to see both sides of how a project can be completed. 

Do you have any tried and true tips for teaching students that are the Judging type? 

Teaching Perceivers: Using MBTI In The Classroom

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here.

In the Myers-Briggs world, Judging vs Perceiving is how we interact with the outside world. Between the two, we will use both of them, but our natural instincts are to move toward one versus the other. This post is focusing on the Perceiving types in the classroom. 

Traits that can define a Perceiver: 

Flexible and spontaneous. 

Ready to adapt to whatever the world brings. 

Can seem messy, unorganized, or sporadic. 

They wait until the last minute to do their school work. Nearing deadlines are the best motivation for them! 

Perceiving types do not like to organize the world, they want the world to organize them. They are going to be your students with messy desks, typically turning in their assignments late, and paying little attention to the clock. They like to feel the room, watch their surroundings, and make decisions as they go, instead of lining it all out ahead of time. 

Ways to support a Perceiving type in the classroom- First and foremost, respect them! Perceiving types can get a bad rap because they do not follow social norms. However, this is their preferred way to interact with the world and will thrive if allowed to be themselves. Try to give them gentle reminders about deadlines, important dates, and events, if possible. 

Ways you can help a Perceiving type grow in the classroom- Give them hard, fast deadlines and hold them to it! Line out the daily schedule and be consistent with it so they can stay on track, but be respectful of their need to adapt to changing situations. 

A common misconception is that Perceiving types are not organized or do not have a plan. To Judging types, this seems sensible! However, they do have an organization system and they do have a plan, it only looks different from what you are expecting it to be. 

In my personal opinion, the Judging/Perceiving types are two opposite types that I believe can be the hardest types to understand each other when we are the opposite types. I am very much a Judging type, but I have many close friends and family that are Perceiving types. It’s frustrating for me that they will not create a plan and stick with it in our day to day interactions. While on the other hand, they become frustrated with me because I am constantly pushing them to make a plan, but they function with a go-with-the-flow attitude. 

That’s why I believe understanding these types in the classroom is essential for success! It can be helpful as a teacher to understand the opposite types so that when you inevitably end up with kids in your classroom that do not interact with the world the way you do, you can understand why and appreciate them for what they do. 

Teaching Feelers: Using Myers-Briggs In The Classroom

the youth of our future is inspiring

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here

According to Myers Briggs, when you are making decisions, you use two functions. Thinking and Feeling. You’ll use both through the whole decision-making process, but one will primarily take over. This blog post is to solely focus on the Feelers. 

Some traits that can define a Feeler: 

They are always considering the feelings of themselves and others in decision-making. 

They are the first to think of how a problem will affect others before they think about the process of the problem. 

When coming up with solutions to situations, they focus on people-oriented solutions and how we can work together instead of work better

They are your empathetic students. 

Feelers think more with their hearts and less with their heads. 

Ways you can support a Feeler in the classroom: allow them time to create personal connections to peers, teachers, and even the material you are studying. Consider their feelings in your conversations, if they do not feel supported, they can lose a lot of trust in the relationship, which is a vital part of their relationship with school in general. Let them be heard in their problem-solving. It may seem inefficient to use feelings while solving an analytical problem, but this is the way they need to process information. 

Ways you can push a Feeler in the classroom: challenge them to think analytically. Give them supported opportunities to push the feelings and emotions of others aside while they problem-solve. Pair them with a Thinking type so that both can see different ways to go about problem-solving. 

Have you been able to pick out the Feelers in your classroom? What tools do you use to support them? 

Teaching the Thinkers: MBTI In The Classroom

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here

According to Myers Briggs, when you are making decisions, you use two functions. Thinking and Feeling. You’ll use both through the whole decision-making process, but one will primarily take over. This blog post is to solely focus on the Thinkers. 

Some traits that can define a Thinker: 

Logical

Looks at the statistics 

Analytical

Truth seekers- even if it’s hurtful

Everything needs to turn out equal

Can put the problem before the person 

How to support a Thinker in the classroom- They need objectives. They need a target goal written somewhere clearly for them to know what the purpose of the work is. They also thrive on conversations with others. Whether this is in a group setting or one-on-one will depend on if they are introverted or extroverted. But they need this conversation because they want to bounce off every possibility and all of the information that they can. 

How to help Thinkers in your classroom grow- challenge them to think about others in their decision-making and how it affects peers. 

Thinkers are a big part of the classroom. You can easily pick them out by holding a class meeting talking about a problem in the classroom that needs a solution. They’ll be the kids talking about how to fix the problem, not who will fix the problem. They’ll bring forward the analytical, sensible ideas that don’t involve the feelings of the whole classroom. 

Have you been able to pick out the Thinkers in your classroom? 

Teaching Sensing Students- Using MBTI In The Classroom

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here

Last week I hit on teaching intuitive students based on the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, this week I want to swing to the other end of the spectrum and talk about teaching students that lean more toward learning in a sensory environment instead of with their intuition. 

First, it’s important to note that we all as humans use both types, sensing, and intuition in our everyday lives. However, we naturally will choose one over the other more often, and use the opposing one less often. 

Sensing students are exactly what you would think- students that use their senses to learn. They are in it for the hear and now. They use their touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing to take in the world around them. 

Traits of sensing students: They look for the bottom line, they don’t try to make connections with other subjects or areas. They need the cold, hard facts written out for them. They need hands-on activities and manipulatives to understand the subject matter to the fullest. Learning through experience means more to them than hearing about it. 

How to support sensing students in the classroom: Find different manipulatives to allow them to hold, mold, and use while they take in the curriculum. Push them a little by challenging them to look beyond the facts and pick out different possibilities of what could be. Give them opportunities to apply what they are learning in their real, everyday lives. Push them by allowing them to engage in stress-free, theoretical conversations with peers. 

Sensing students are important to the classroom! They balance out the dreamer, intuitive types. Having a good mix of both in the classroom can bring out a great combination of facts and dreams. Conversations and manipulatives. 

Have you been able to pick out the sensing students in your classroom? How do you support their learning style, while also helping them grow by using their intuitive side? 

Teaching Intuitive Students

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here

In the Myers-Briggs world, looking at personality types they look at the difference between sensing types and intuitive types. (S) sensing types are those that take on the world in a sensory, hands-on way. (N) intuitive types use their intuition to navigate the world and make decisions. Today, we are going to break down intuitive types and how we as teachers can understand them and help them in the classroom. 

Traits of intuitive students: big-picture thinkers, can love symbols or theories that may seem abstract. They often “read between the lines.” Future thinkers or dreamers, sometimes not able to follow through on these plans and dreams because they are such elaborate, radical thoughts. 

If the sensing types are your hands-on learners, the intuitive types do better sitting with information, learning all that they can on the subject, asking a lot of questions, making connections with other facts, and then internalizing the info. 

Just because a student leans towards an intuitive personality type, does not mean they cannot gain positive interactions from a sensory learning experience. They may simply just utilize the materials differently than sensory students. 

For example, if you give your 5th graders tens blocks to touch and move and manipulate as you learn division, your intuitive students may interact with the tens blocks, they may do the exercises to show division, and it may assist in their deeper knowledge of the subject. However, there is also a very good chance that they will be more distant from the materials or use them in a way to show how multiplication associates with division and vice versa. It’s important to remember that just because a student leans to intuitive thinking doesn’t mean they don’t use their sensory skills to learn. 

Intuitive students are dreamers. They can get caught up in thinking about how to improve any given situation, and their thoughts can take them so far as to come up with ideas that are not reasonable to carry out. The reality of putting these ideas into motion is not there for them. 

Intuitive students are great to have in your classroom! Have you been able to pick out the intuitive learners versus the sensory learners in your kids? 

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