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?