According to a teaching style survey administered by North Carolina State University administered by Felder and Solomon, I scored high as a reflective, intuitive, verbal, and global learner.
In the score dimensions, learners tend to be either active or reflective. Active learners are those who like to learn as they do and learn hands on, whereas reflective learners like thinking abstractly about what is being discussed. Scores are also measured in terms of sensing or intuitive. Sensing learners are those who like to use their senses to learn whereas intuitive learners like to use emotion and feelings to discern content. Another dimension was a scale of visual or verbal. Visual learners like pictures and other visual mediums to learn new knowledge. Verbal learners like to listen to others and go off of written and verbal directions. The final dimension is Sequential vs. Global. Sequential learners like to learn things as part of a process in terms of linear direction. Global Learners like to think about things on a larger scale.
I also took the Kisa Personality test, which was a condensed version of the Meyers-Briggs Personality test. I was evaluated as an ENFJ (Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging). I took this test in my undergraduate and scored similarly. According to research, ENFJ is one of the least common personality types and is the common personality profile for politicians and leaders (Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are both ENFJs).
Taking these assessments has led to me think about my teaching practice and how to tailor my instruction for students. As a student, I learned in a specific way. My learning style was a verbal, reading/writing student, which was the least common way most students learn. As I have come to learn, most students are Visual/Kinesthetic learners. In my methods courses, we were taught how to design lessons using the Universal Design for Learning which made teacher candidates think about how incorporate all styles of learning. I can’t just model the things that I liked, I have to incorporate all learning styles.
I decided to become a teacher because I am very passionate about art and politics. I studied a wide variety of humanities and social science subjects. I like to talk about art, philosophy, and politics with students. These disciplines are reading and writing intensive. As a teacher, I need to find a way to make my instruction more visual and kinesthetic so I can appeal to more learners and help students retain content than to lecture and discuss readings.
Alex Milledge Teacher Blog 