MBTI Personality Type and Learning

Different personality types have different motivators and different learning styles. An overview of the Myers Briggs Personality Type (MBTI) can be found at Keirsey.com and at The Personality Page. You can take an online test to determine your type at humanmetrics.

The MBTI type of SJ responds best to a structured, detailed, just the facts presentation. NPs respond best to a creative presentation that includes the overall theory and meaning of what they are learning.

NPs, especially E_NPs, may be more vulnerable to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and harder to engage in the learning process. David Keirsey believes that SP's are more prone to ADD, discussing this in his online article "The great ADD hoax".

An understanding of your child’s personality type can help you structure the learning process and select rewards in the most efficient manner.

Liz has found the study of MBTI personality type to be very useful and rewarding in her life. As a Christian, a thorough understanding of the MBTI has allowed her to better understand and love those with personality types quite different from her own. When she was in a leadership role in the Air Force, an understanding of personality type helped her be a better leader, allowing her to use her subordinates’ strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. It also helped her to better understand their concerns. She is an INTP, a personality type that is generally not empathetic to people’s wants and needs, and is also not generally a strong leader. Through a lot of prayer, God’s grace, and an understanding of personality type, she was very successful in that role.

A casual reading of one or two books about the MBTI will not produce these benefits. You need to thoroughly understand the MBTI and learn the MBTI personality types of several of your friends and family members to be able to benefit from the insights that a study of the MBTI can produce. After reading all of the MBTI information online at Kiersey and The Personality Page, we recommend these books as a start:

The Art of Speed Reading People by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger
All of their books about Type are good, but this one was presented in way that was especially easy to understand, explaining the different types plainly and concisely.

Gifts Differing by Isabel Briggs Myers and Peter B. Myers
This book is very enjoyable to read. It's even better to read after you've read a more basic book about the MBTI. The book starts with a biblical quote about each of us having "gifts differing." She felt that each person and each personality type were important and special.

Incidentally, our personality type has helped us design these phonics lessons. According to Joe Butt's description of INTPs,

"Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play, similarly languages, computer systems--potentially any complex system. INTPs thrive on systems. Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can overtake the INTP's conscious thought. This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay. Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary."

Liz loves adapting the phonics lessons and studying and learning about the phonetic structure and patterns of English and how students learn these patterns. It is harder for her to do the repetitive work involved with making this web site possible.

Jeff is an INTJ. He is very good with computers and has transitioned the phonics lessons from analog to digital.