EXAMINING LEARNING
STYLES IN ONLINE DELIVERY.

INTRODUCTION: What is the MBTI?

Before attending the workshop session it is important for you to read this paper and resource links to gain an understanding of what the Jungian Typology and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is, and how it can be ethically used in an educational setting.
The workshop is not intended as a venue to explain the MBTI but to discuss its use in recognising learning styles, particularly in the online setting.

The purpose of the MBTI personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung (published 1921/1971) understandable and useful in people's lives.
The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in behaviour is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the way individuals prefer to use their perception and judgement.

Are we so terribly predictable?

It may appear strange that - for all our differences and uniqueness - this theory highlights that in many respects, we have predictable attitudes and psychologies that can be "sorted" into 16 difference "Types".

Knowing this about yourself as teacher, and knowing that there could be 16 different "Types" before you as students may appear overwhelming at first.

However the MBTI makes the theory systematically accessible, entertaining and important. It is also the most validated and popular psychological instrument in the world. It is used so much because its theory and practice validates our common sense.

The MBTI helps us to appreciate our own gifts as teachers and trainers, respect others' differences, and build on our capacity to consciously develop our personalities, skills and approaches in a systematic way.

A "type" is not created by simply adding the 4 preferred ways of functioning. Each Type described by Jung and Myers is a dynamic interaction of the 4 preferences that make up a type.

How does the Indicator work?

The MBTI is different from typical trait approaches to personality that measure variation along a continuum; instead the indicator seeks to identify a respondent's status on either one or the other of two opposite personality categories, both.
Both of these categories are regarded as neutral in relation to emotional health, intellectual functioning and psychological adaptation.

This means that the MBTI is not
measuring you or your students IQ, mental well-being
or capacity to think and feel.
It's looking at how you gather information
and make decisions.

The type descriptions are designed to reflect a theory that includes a model of development that continues through out the lifespan - different ages and stages of life. (Briggs Myers, I, McCaulley, M., Quenk, N. & Hammer, A 1998).

In order to consider how the theory may be put into practice we need to understand the workings of the MBTI.
I have included here some resources that will give you that understanding if you are not familiar with the Indicator.

http://www.myersbriggs.org/about_mbti/basics.cfm
this web page will give you the official description of 'type', and is essential reading to understand the rest of this paper and the workshop.

http://www.myersbriggs.org/
the home page of the official web site for the MBTI

http://skepdic.com/myersb.html
http://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwmbti.html
2 sites presenting information on type and it's use. http://www.itd.net.au/ Institute for Type Development (Australasian site)

PUTTING THE THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Why would we need to be aware of type or the MBTI in order to be more effective as online teachers (or teachers in general)?
In practice we tend to assume unconsciously that other people's minds work on the same principles as our own. All too often, however, the people with whom we interact do not reason as we reason, do not value the things we value, or are not interested in what interests us.

The assumption of similarity, therefore, can promote misunderstanding of the motives and behaviours of the people whose minds operate quite differently from our own. (Briggs Myers, I, McCaulley, M., Quenk, N. & Hammer, A 1998 pg 21).

I'm sure that we have all, as teachers noticed many differences we see in our students.

A Teaching Example

One of the things that I love most about the MBTI when applied to education is that as a teacher I actually "knew" a lot of these things, but it was almost a subconscious thing…., now I had a language to describe it.

Sensate versus Intuitive
I knew for example that some students really worked better if I gave them a step-by-step guide sheet that gave them several exercises to learn some uses of a computer application.

Others were looking in leaps and bounds for connective patterns, stimulated by the complex future potential of the software. These "Big Picture" students tended to leap in and ahead, re-visit and query more frequently - especially the noisier Extraverts.

Introversion vs Extraversion
Some of these the students liked to then work quietly on their own to completion, whilst others wanted to also join in with talk amongst the room and discuss what they were doing. (or even other things unrelated)

Thinking preference with Intuitive preference
Other students however wanted me to talk to them about the practical applications and extensions of the principle behind the capabilities of the software to perform this task.
Often they didn't even follow the steps I had given out, but talked about the big picture then worked out their own path to produce the end result.

Feeling preference with Sensing preference
Quite the opposite to me, other students would look for steady, comfortable and extremely practical ways of applying the new skill to their immediate situation alone. They would work on tasks or projects they approved of or appreciated, that were akin to their set of values.
Devoid of much sophisticated strategic thinking, their joy at physically accomplishing a series of tricky steps one at a time, was obvious.

Judging versus Perceiving
Half the class liked to complete everything they started - usually working within an organised system .
The others leapt like playful children from one task to another with an easy capacity to adapt to my own flexible style of teaching.

I'm sure any of you can think of other variations of student reaction to any given 'task' in the classroom. (The one who seems to repeatedly deliberately go off on tangents, run into problems, need assistance and have no clue how it all went wrong springs repeatedly to my mind).
We are heading now to the crux of what I wish to stimulate you to think and explore as a result of this workshop.

If we set tasks that only incorporate a narrow spectrum of learning styles, what are the immediate implications?
If we assess our students according to that same style (usually our own or the organisation's), are we going to see low success rates for some students, not because they are too dumb to learn what we presented, but because they were unable to construct any knowledge or responses because of how it was presented and assessed?

And a final word on our own teaching "blind-spots"

And what about our own natural biases. For example, university studies show that the Intuitive Feeling type lecturer usually appreciates and ranks more highly the work of the Intuitive Thinking type. So where does this leave the neglected Sensates - usually half the population??? How do we factor in our own Blindspots - our under-developed "inferior" functions when designing, delivering and assessing our work? My own capacity to appreciate others' inconsistencies and understand so-called broken promises over tasks (a common problem for Thinkers when dealing with Feelers) is rapidly improving now that I lay claim to awareness of the Thinking/Feeling differences in us all.

With the use of Technology in education, and in this case, the use of online teaching, we are MORE able to accommodate learning styles and assist our students to become constructivist learners - learners who not only can regurgitate facts learned, but can apply that learning as knowledge. (Harper B. Hedburg J. 1997)

In the evening session today there is a workshop presentation: Mastering Online Facilitation Skills - NSW Teacher Champions Tell All where we will discuss our experiences teaching an online course. I was particularly thrilled to be involved in this course this year, as I could see how well learning styles were catered for. Students had mentors allocated to them (I was a mentor), and there was a wide variety of activities throughout the 10 weeks:

· Weekly readings from a provided manual.
· Web site resources for further exploration of material being learnt.
· Step-by-step tutorials in WebCT and the MOO(allowing a lot of freedom for students to do only the steps required or then to go on and create as much in their space as desired)
· Email list comprising all students, mentors and teachers.
· Weekly 1 hour synchronous lessons - comprising discussions, reflections and active learning of MOO skills to builder level.
· Coffee lounge to relax and socialise in before and after live lessons
· Forum for reflective posting during the week.
· Space left open on the schedule to allow students to direct the final aspects of their learning.

The only thing 'missing' was any face-to-face contact.

Attend our session to find out more about the whole experience!

Following are some more resources for you to read research that has been conducted on learning styles and education.

Implication of learning styles for the design of online instructional material

An interesting article for those who wish to take the topic a little further. This article is actually speaking specifically about primary school education but has some real items of interest in it.

This article talks about type and online learning in particular.
It draws on the much appreciated ENFP talents of learning as the starting point.

CONCLUSION

We talk about Life-Long Learning.
I often ask myself how do I stimulate my students to embrace this? I found that by accepting students as they are, and being flexible myself in how I allow them to learn, I had a very high success, retention and return rate with my students.

As we move into the online environment with education, I have been particularly stimulated to research how students can learn through this medium in the way that they learn best. (according to their learning style)

I do feel that it is very healthy to stimulate students to learn 'outside' their preferred style, but I found that by offering them ways to learn according their style gave them more confidence to attempt things outside their style.

This compliments the Jungian theory - do best from a position of natural strength,
then develop the weaker or "inferior" preferences.

If our students are only presented with one method of learning and being assessed, then they often lose interest and drop out or rebel.
If they are offered ways to learn that are within their style, they may well excel in their learning of that same subject.
With the vast array of resources available to students via the internet, accommodation of learning styles does not have to mean a huge workload on the teacher. Students can be directed to further resources, tutorials, videos etc, just as an organisation can provide text books and laboratories.

Instead of teachers trying to create their own volumes of materials and resources, the teacher can work with the students to explore their learning further.

REFERENCES

Briggs Myers, I, McCaulley, M., Quenk, N. & Hammer, A (1998). MBTI Manual. Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. USA Brightman H. (2000)

GSU Master Teacher Program: On Learning Styles Georgia State University USA [online]
http://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwmbti.html

Carroll R. T. (2002) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [online]
http://skepdic.com/myersb.html

Dewar T. (2000) MBTI and Online Learning Calliope Learning USA [online]
http://www.calliopelearning.com/seminars/mbti.html#One%20ENFP's

Harper B. Hedburg J. (1997) Creating Motivating Interactive Learning Environments: a Constructivist View Curtin University of Technology. WA Australia. [online]
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth97/papers/Harper/Harper.html

Institute for Type Development (Australasian site), (2002) [online]
http://www.itd.net.au/

McLoughlin C. (1999) The implications of the research literature on learning styles for the design of instructional material University of New England [online]
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet15/mcloughlin.html

The officially recognised site of the Myers & Briggs Foundation [online]
http://www.myersbriggs.org/

Myers & Briggs Foundation (2002) About the MBTI Instrument [online]
http://www.myersbriggs.org/about_mbti/basics.cfm

Myers & Briggs Foundation (2002) Applying Type in Education [online]
http://www.myersbriggs.org/applying/education.cfm#article