Acknowledging Behavioral Diversity in Classrooms

When planning a lesson, ask yourself these questions to gage whether or not your lesson will cater to every type of learner in your classroom.

Extraversion: Is there an activity or direct interaction as part of this lesson?

Introversion:Is there an ‘internalizing pause’ built into this lesson to allow time for introverted students to retreat into their own heads without missing something important?

Sensing:Is this material presented in the present tense (as though I were telling of an historical event, for example, as someone present when it was happening) and related to a concrete kind of ‘need to know’ orientation within the students’ current life experience?

Intuition:Is this material plugged into some kind of more global learning that students have been exposed to?

Thinking:Is the premise for this lesson theme clear and logical, as well as logically related to previous learning or outside experiences of significance?

Feeling:Is this material tied into issues that are meaningful to a group or to people as a whole, or does it touch the heart in some way as well as the head?

Judging:Is this lesson organized in such a way that the performance expected of the students is spelled out, the time lines clear, and the assessment criteria specified?

Perceiving:Is there room in this lesson for freedom to explore a tangent or generate a product that is creative and different?

Not every aspect of psychological type can be engaged in every lesson, but accommodating as many as possible will enrich each student’s experience.