Learning and Personality: The Experience of Introverted Reflective Learners in a World of Extroverts

How does an introverted student with a visual or auditory learning preference find success in a classroom built for extroverted kinesthetic learners? While student discussion in the classroom is invaluable, it also presents an issue for many students, not only in how they feel in the class setting, but in how they ultimately learn. Given the emerging understanding of differing personality types and learning preference, it is questionable whether all students are served by socially active methods that mandate students to speak. Learning and Personality documents how introverted and intrapersonal students are being subjected to uncomfortable situations in schools today. This book focuses on the classroom experience of students who have been identified as learning best through reflection and observation. The author uses an American college writing class as the setting to explore the in-depth experience of common first year students. The results of this primary qualitative study reveal a glaring conflict within mainstream educational theory. With more than five years of research and over one hundred references cited from sources that span two centuries, this book calls attention to a mass misunderstanding of introversion, as well as the effects of instructional methods that appeal to only one type of personality.