Elementary Matters is an educational blog focused on Elementary grades 1-3. These posts will make an elementary teacher's life easier by sharing information about how the brain learns best. It includes time savers, suggestions for classroom management, hints on effective teaching of reading, writing, and math, and several ideas for squeezing Science and Social Studies into daily instruction. These posts include links to several videos, articles, resources, and plenty of free materials.
Myers-Briggs Part 6: What's Your Type?
Myers-Briggs Part 5: How Do You Live Your Outer Life?
The fourth and final scale that's part of the Myers-Briggs Personality Types deals with how people live their "outer life".
- Judging types prefer organization and planning.
- Perceiving types like to improvise and explore options.
- Judging types value punctuality and completeness of tasks.
- Perceiving types value spontaneity and flexibility.
- Judging types prefer decisions made. They are task oriented and love to make lists.
- Perceiving types prefer to multitask. They mix work with play, and love variety.
- Judging types can be accused of being "too structured".
- Perceiving types can be accused of being "too loosey goosey."
For more information on the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, click the links below.
Have you figured out your own type?
Myers-Briggs Part 4: How Do You Make Decisions?
It's time for another installment of my series on the Myers-Briggs Personality Types. Today we'll discuss how people make their decisions.
According to Myers-Briggs, there are two ways people make their decisions:
Thinking people make decisions based on fact. They are logical, objective, and driven by thought. They do the "right thing" whether or not it is liked. They have been known to enjoy a debate. Thinking types are sometimes seen as uncaring or indifferent.
Feeling people make decisions based on their hearts. They care about how people feel, and want to keep people happy. They are passionate and driven by emotion. They avoid conflict. Feeling types are sometimes seen as too idealistic or too sensitive.
As I've mentioned on discussion of previous scales, all people have parts of both sides. Most decisions are made with a combination of both Thinking and Feeling characteristics. However, we all have a preference.
Here are some interesting statistics:
- Of the Thinkers, about 65% are men.
- Of the Feelers, 75% are women.
Myers Briggs Personality Types
We met one weekend a month for a couple of years. We were lucky to go through the whole program with the same group of teachers. It was a variety of educators, from classroom teachers, to art teachers, music teachers, and even a school nurse! We came from all over New England to a little seminar house in a small town in New Hampshire. When we were done, we not only had a masters degree, but we had a core of deeply trusted friends in education.
Although these courses were 25 years ago, they left a profound impact in my teaching as well as my personal life. I draw on these experiences daily in my teaching.
Probably the most valuable thing I got out of this masters program was learning about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types. It was one of the first things we learned in the program, and it kept coming back through the whole 2 year process. It helped me understand myself, and it helped me understand my students. It helped me accept differences in people and realize that all different kinds of people are valuable and important in our society.
It's based on 4 different scales, or preferences. It is important to remember that these are just preferences. It's not an IQ test or aptitude test in any way. Just like you might prefer to write with your right hand, because it's more comfortable for you. If you had to, you could use your left hand, but it's just not as comfortable. Using your right hand (or your left) is your preference.
The first scale is about how a person interacts with their world. Some think of this scale as how a person gets their energy. These preferences are Introversion (I) and Extroversion (E.)
The next preference is how a person prefers to process information. These preferences are Sensing (S) and Intuition (N.)
The third preference is about how a person makes decisions. These preferences are Thinking (T) and Feeling (F.)
The fourth preference is how a person organizes his life. These preferences are Judging (J) and Perceiving (P.)
Since each of the 4 scales has 2 preferences, there are a total of 16 possible personality types.
The word scale is appropriate here. Some people land all the way on the edge of a scale, and some people land close to the middle of a scale. My own scales have some extremes, and some scales where I land almost in the middle. (Almost like ambidextrous, with the dominant hand analogy.)
There are links to more information about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types all over the internet! Just google it, and you'll find plenty of information!