Effective Teaching, Effective Learning: Making the Personality Connection in Your Classroom

I'm a certified MBTI administrator and have just started teaching full time at university level. I've dusted off my MBTI stuff to improve my ability to reach all my students. Since I'm an ENTP, I know that I tend to teach in such a way that would excite me - and which probably frustrates the dickens out of some of my I, S, F and J students. (For example, I like to change assignments in the middle of the semester because I see ways to improve them based on the flow of the class.) I didn't have this book in my collection, and I am extremely glad I added it. It is extremely thorough and very thoughtful, unlike alot of the glib surface treatments of the MBTI you find out there. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who wants to be more effective at teaching others (or understanding their own learning style better).

I have recently posted a number of reviews of the Dunns' books onTeaching and Learning Styles. Here we have a different approach basedon temperaments and personality differences. The Myers-Briggs TypeIndicator (MBTI) and its developments by David Keirsey serve as thebasis for the whole framework. It is best to first do the MBTI test,or the Keirsey's 2 brief tests, freely accessible on the Internet(also in the book, Please Understand Me). There are already numerousgood books on MBTI. Here the authors make excellent applications toeducation. After describing in depth different types in schoolcontexts, you get a useful summary in Table 12, of 4 basic groups ofstudent preferences: Guardian, Artisan, Idealist and Rational. Ch. 12gives many classroom techniques and a summary chart that help teachersto be more aware of what they can do to match the personality andlearning style differences of the students. Overall, this book is agreat help for making teaching and learning more fruitful when weunderstand and respect the students' uniqueness and differences inpersonality.

This is an EXCELLENT book! If you are familiar with the MBTI it will be very helpful. If not, it may be a bit overwheliming. It is in detail and the authors give practical uses of the information. It is presented in a very factual, tell it like it is form. If you have liked "Please Understand Me" and other MBTI type books, you will like this. Well layed out, but more charts would have been useful to compare and contrast the different styles quickly. Have already used the information for a quick start with a difficult charter school class. Great Buy! Worth the money!

What an interesting concept! Anyone who has completed the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory and who now knows his/her "letters" will find this book riveting. The authors help you understand the connection between your "letters" (ISTP, ENTJ,etc.) and your teaching personality--your strengths and weaknesses. Then they describe how your personality meshes or doesn't mesh with your students who may be your opposite in personality traits. Eureka! Suddenly you understand why that shy 10th grader never speaks but writes brilliant essays. I found this approach to learning about and practicing the art of teaching fresh and innovative. Bravo!

The Fairhursts have spelled out some of the reasons that our current classroom system, based on the belief that one way of teaching fits all, is flawed. They offer instead a tailored approach which takes into account the way different people (including children) learn. They give a step-by-step, insightful approach to teaching which would result in vast improvements in the classroom were it to be widely employed.