Customer Reviews

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

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I have recently posted a number of reviews of the Dunns' books on
Teaching and Learning Styles. Here we have a different approach based
on temperaments and personality differences. The Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI) and its developments by David Keirsey serve as the
basis 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 numerous
good books on MBTI. Here the authors make excellent applications to
education. After describing in depth different types in school
contexts, you get a useful summary in Table 12, of 4 basic groups of
student preferences: Guardian, Artisan, Idealist and Rational. Ch. 12
gives many classroom techniques and a summary chart that help teachers
to be more aware of what they can do to match the personality and
learning style differences of the students. Overall, this book is a
great help for making teaching and learning more fruitful when we
understand and respect the students' uniqueness and differences in
personality.

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.

Alice and Lisa Fairhurst explore the way we as parents, students, and teachers, interact with each other and our environment and how this interaction can either enhance, or detract from our ability to explore and discover our world. The tools available in this book can unlock secrets about our own behavior and learning preferences that will open new doors to excellence and tolerance within the classroom. It is a book that opens doors to enhancing the educational process.