Supporting Learning for Children and Adolescents with Dr. Dawn Elise Snipes

Foreign. I'd like to welcome everybody today's presentation on supporting learning for children and adolescents. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. Now, you might be asking yourself, who is this presentation really designed for? And my answer is, everybody. Hopefully, if you are a teacher, you may have gotten away from the roots of looking at different learning styles and gotten kind of stuck in the curriculum that is presented to you. If you are a school counselor, this can help you empower students and help them learn how to learn so they can thrive in the environment in which they're expected to learn, which is probably a classroom setting. If you are a parent, you can benefit from watching this because we're going to talk about the different learning needs of students so you can help them with their homework. You know how to construct their homework in a way that's meaningful to them and can help them learn best. But you can also help them learn tips, tools and strategies to make their school learning environment more conducive to, you know, their learning style and temperament. And finally, if you are a homeschool parent, you are going to learn a lot about temperament and learning style and some of the ways that you can adjust your curriculum or your environment to better meet the needs of your young person. We're going to explore real quickly at the beginning how different learning styles and temperaments impact learning, which also impacts self esteem and mood. And we're also going to identify tools that you can use as we go through to most effectively support each student's ability to learn. Now, I do want to preface and say we're talking about general learning styles, temperaments and learning environments here. We're not talking about addressing learning disabilities or mental health issues like ADHD or. What I'm talking about is helping every student create a learning environment that inspires them and energizes them and helps them most effectively and efficiently learn. School failure is a major contributor to low self esteem, depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Academic failure alone was assoc. Is associated with a higher suicide risk for for males there are strong correlations, about 50%. That's a big number. 50% of people who have mental health issues have also experienced school failure. So it's really important to help people identify what may be preventing them from succeeding in school. This is not only because helping them succeed in school helps their self esteem and their self efficacy and it empowers them. But when people have an education it opens more opportunities for them as they get older so they can have higher paying jobs and potentially have more options. Depression, anxiety and Grief. Each independently predicted learning failures. So learning failures and can cause or are strongly associated with the development of depression, anxiety and substance abuse. And depression and anxiety further cause more learning failure. So it's this negative downward spiral. We need to break it. Students learn differently and have different needs related to their educational environments. And the two areas we're going to talk about today are learning style and temperament. With learning style, some people learn visually by seeing things, some people learn auditorily by hearing things, they learn by hearing. And other people learn by doing or kinesthetically. And we're going to talk about what that looks like in the classroom and in learning events. And I want you to recognize that most people, you know, think about yourself. Most people are a combination of two of those learning styles. For me, I tend to be strongly visual with kinesthetic coming in a close second and auditory learning or hearing coming in a distant third. I have a hard time paying attention, staying focused in lectures, unless, remember because I'm visual, unless I am taking copious notes. So that is how in a lecture format like in college, I was able to function was to just continually take notes. I had other friends who were auditory learners who would record, with the professor's permission, record the lecture and then they would listen to it again when they were on the treadmill or wherever. But they learned by hearing. So we're going to talk about different ways to help people take the information they're given to them by their instructors and put it in a form that they are able to encode it best. And then temperament talks about basically our personalities. And there's four major dimensions. We're going to talk about each of them. The first dimension talks about the environments that people are most calm in, that the environments that bring them the least amount of stress and help them have the most amount of energy. The second dimension talks about whether people are bottom up, they want the details and they go to the final thing, or top down learners, they want the big picture and then they deconstruct it. The third dimension talks about how people make sense of what's going on, how they're motivated, whether they're motivated by facts and figures or they're motivated by what makes people happy and brings harmony. And the 4 4th dimension is basically your time management dimension. And it's important to understand how each one of those dimensions impacts students learning styles and what we can do to help them adjust any environment to better meet their needs. Now they may not be able to make it completely meet their needs, but helping them understand what in Their environment may be preventing optimal learning. So they can try to make adjustments is really important. Let's start with temperament. There are four dimensions of temperament as I mentioned. Each one's on a continuum. No one side is worse or better than the other. They're just different. And I want you to think about what Covey talks about with synergizing. It takes different types of people to make the world go round. And if we can bring people together who are different, then we may be able to create something that is, you know, even more impressive than having all extroverts or all introverts. So extroverts really like classroom environments. They like meeting new people. They draw their energy from being around other people. That's great in public school, that's great in college. That is great if the child is in some sort of classroom environment. Homeschooling, learning online, you know, distance learning, those sorts of things may present a challenge for the extrovert who is not going to be able to draw that energy from peers as easily. Things you can do if the person is in an environment where they don't have the stimulation of having other people around. Study at the library. Um, maybe create study groups, ideally face to face study groups. Most extroverts really prefer to be around people in person. Uh, but if you can't, for some reason online video based study groups are better than nothing but encourage them to be involved in activities. Maybe their learning situation, you know, is not going to be one that is super conducive to being around a lot of people for whatever reason. Make sure that other aspects of their life attend to that extroverted dimension. Because if extroverts do not get to interact with others, they start feeling very lonely and very isolated and their energy drops precipitously. Make sure that extroverts have options for interacting with others on a regular basis or preferably around the lessons because they will get really energized by talking about things. Introverts on the other hand, have to exert effort to be around people. It can be exhausting to be in a classroom, to be in school, especially passing periods where there's, you know, people bumping into you in the hallways and you know, it can be really exhausting for them given their druthers. They may prefer to be in the library studying by themselves. Ask your child, ask the youth, what do they prefer in a public school situation? They may not be able to get out of the classroom, so to speak, but where can they find downtime during the day? Where can they Find places where they can be quiet and, you know, focus on what they're doing without having to worry about other people. Generally, the library is a good option for them because school libraries are generally not used a whole lot, to be quite honest. But we want to talk to youth about, you know, what do they need? Introverts will benefit from having downtime each day where they can get away from the input of lots of other people and they can just have quiet time. If you're homeschooling and there are multiple children in the household, the introvert may need time where they can go to their room or they can go outside and just, you know, regroup and get regrounded. Extroverts are expansive and less passionate about things. They want to know a little bit about everything. They are just fascinated. They will do well in survey classes, you know, survey of biology, survey of history. Introverts are very intense and passionate. They will find a topic in that class and they will seize on it and they want. Will want to learn and everything about it. Or maybe they will find a particular subject like biology, and they become fascinated with it and they want to learn everything about that. In the public school environment, a lot of times you have, you know, predetermined curriculum that you've got to go through for the extrovert. Most of the time, this works for them because most, at least in. In the United States, most public school is very much a survey of. Survey of history, survey of English. The introvert may feel very bored about that because they're just kind of touching on something and they find something they're interested in and they're like, oh, I want to know more. And the teacher's like, well, no, you know, we don't have time for that. So it's important to figure out how to inspire an introvert and give them activities that are meaningful so they can learn about the things that they are fascinated by. If they pick a topic, you know, biology or calculus or geometry, encourage them in that area. Encourage them to learn as much as they can. Put them in positions where they can help others. You know, if they're introverted, they're not going to want to be teaching to the whole class, but they may feel very empowered and very good about themselves if they're able to tutor a particular student or who may be struggling. If you are homeschooling, you know, it's much easier to adjust to expansive versus passionate. You know, in homeschooling, you can have them do the surveys. You can have them, you know, go to the library and get, you know, various books on different topics, whatever works for that student. Or you can have their lessons revolve around something that they are fascinated by. And we'll just stick with biology because that's an easy topic to give examples of. Biology is going to. You can find writings about biology, you can work on reading and, you know, composition. You can have them do research reports in about different aspects of biology. Lots of math in biology, lots of history in science and biology, going back and exploring the development of, you know, vaccines or how we came to learn about cells. So you can tailor a lot of the students work for that semester, for example, around a topic that they're interested in. And yes, I know that doesn't help them learn about the crusades or World War II or whatever for history. Well, that may be the next semester where you identify something that the youth is really interested in in history and figure out how to tie that together so they learn what they need to learn. Extroverts would rather figure things out while they are talking. This is really difficult in a public school environment where they're told to basically speak, sit still and be quiet and listen. Extroverts connect the dots while they are speaking, which is why small group work is really, really beneficial. And study groups, breakout groups, those can be really helpful for an introvert. They want to figure things out before they talk. So they are happy to take in information and sit there and mull it over and, and then think about it in a classroom setting. The extrovert is the one that's always going to be raising their hand. They're always going to want to provide an answer or talk about something. The introvert may not be as quick to raise their hand because they're putting all the pieces together in their mind and they're formulating an answer before they speak. Doesn't mean they're not paying attention or they're not interested. They just. They're more of a reflective learner. And that's important to recognize in a homeschool environment. It's going to be really important to engage the extroverted child in some sort of dialogue. They really thrive on dialogue, not just writing or reading or something like that. They want to talk about it. My son actually part of what he learned to do when he was homeschooling and now he's in college and is still virtual, but he would talk to himself. I mean, he would sit there and just talk out loud, talk through his thoughts out loud. And that's not exactly the same as talking with somebody else, but it helped him get his thoughts out of his head and he was able to make sense of it that way. Introverts, on the other hand, don't need to have that verbal engagement with you so much. And actually they probably prefer not to have it. They prefer to create, report or answer essay questions and then present them to you. So paying attention to whether they need to communicate in order to figure things out or they want to communicate after they figure things out is important. Extroverts enjoy background noise. They, you know, don't necessarily mind having the radio on. The TV can be a little bit distracting, but they don't mind having a little bit of noise going on. It's if you're homeschooling, that's a bonus because a lot of times there's dogs or other kids or something going on. The introvert really prefers peace and quiet. They, when they're studying and just in general with their temperament, they tend to be very focused on what's going on inside them. So noise and stimulation and distractions from outside can be very stressful and jarring for them. In an environment like in our house where we've got four dogs, an introvert may do better having noise canceling headphones on or being in a room where you've got some sort of white noise in order to drown out any background noises that might be disturbing to them. The extrovert may want to have the radio on. So knowing what your youth need, if you've got an extrovert and an introvert and in your house, then, you know, one may want to listen to the radio, have them put headphones on, and the other may want peace and quiet. So they can have white noise headphones on if they want to. In a classroom environment, generally, there's a fair amount of peace and quiet, so that's not as much of an issue for the introvert. The extrovert, generally, it's not going to harm them if they're in a quiet environment for a little while, but they're going to have difficulty in places like study halls where it's an entire hour of silence that can be very stressful for that person who, you know, talks things out. Extroverts tend to know what's going on around them rather than inside them. They're very aware of the people around them and their moods and their, you know, how they're doing. If somebody around them is, you know, feeling bad, you know, they can be very sensitive to those people around them, but they're not really cued into what's going on inside them. Which is why extroverts can draw energy from other people. For example, when I go to the gym I draw energy from the people around me. When I work out at home, I'm much less motivated. Introverts are more likely to know what's going on inside them. They're aware of if they're tired or if they're exhausted or if they're stressed. And all of the input from outside is just compounding that it, it's noise added to. So the introvert is going to have difficulty being as sensitive sometimes to what's going on around them. Especially in, in large groups. It can be very, very exhausting to try to pay attention to all of the non verbals and all of the stuff that's going on. Again, introverts need downtime, they need quiet time. Extroverts really need to be around others to derive some of that energy. Extroverts because they're aware of what's going on around them really don't mind interruptions. They do well chunking information and you know, can switch gears really quickly most of the time. Introverts on the other hand, as I said earlier because they are very internally focused, may be jarred when they get interrupted. You know, it's very stressful for them to be interrupted, to have to switch gears. So they will do much better if they have set aside times where they are able to study, where they are able to do things. They're not going to be able to take their lessons with them in the car while you're driving places and then get, get out, take a break, you know, go shopping with you and then come back and get started again. That's going to be super stressful to them in the classroom environment. You know, generally the there aren't going to be a whole lot of interruptions. So that is good for the introvert. The extrovert generally doesn't care. Interruptions are not. So that's not a huge issue in a classroom environment. Extroverts because they figure things out while they're talking and they're expansive and like to know a little bit about everything. They're going to have a lot of questions and they're considered really good talkers whereas introverts are considered really good listeners. It doesn't mean they're paying attention any less. You know, one's paying less attention than the other. It just means they are different. Extroverts are paying attention and talking and telling you their observations while they're going, and sometimes you just want to be like, okay, take a breath. Introverts on the other hand may not talk as much, but they're observing and they're very aware of what is going on when they are engaged with other people. And introverts do much better in small groups, you know, one to four other people. Extroverts do fine in, you know, large groups of 10, 20 plus, you know, so knowing your students preferences is going to be really important. Having an introvert get up in front of the class and give a speech is often just terrifying for them and very exhausting to, to have to be on, you know, it, it can be exhausting for anybody. But it's re can be really exhausting for an introvert. They really don't like having to engage with 20 or 30 people at a time or an extrovert is going to like this. So if you're in a classroom environment thinking about, okay, who do I call on for different things, if you're going to have people get up in front of the class and give a speech or do a sk get, your extroverts are going to love this. Your introverts are going to want to observe and maybe make comments later, reflective comments that gives you an idea just about, you know, the environment. So thinking on each one of these dimensions, think about where your student is, where each individual, each particular student is to identify, you know, okay, what can I do to help this student feel more relaxed and feel more empowered and learn more efficiently. Learning is interesting because the way we take in information, the way we code information for storage, if you want to think about it that way, and the emotional valence of that information will affect our ability to remember it and to effectively learn it, we need to continually answer the question or have the youth answer the question for themselves. Why do I care? And as instructors, it's up to us to regularly provide that feedback. You know, you're learning about ancient Roman history, why do I care? You're learning about algebra, why do I care? And that comes back to how can this help me? How is this practical to helping me in some sort of way? And we'll talk more about some of those ways later. But you know, drawing connections for youth because the more they care about something, the more they see how it can be useful or it's important for them to know, the more likely they are to be able to commit it to long term memory. If they don't care about something, if they don't see the point, they're probably Just going to cram it in their memory long enough to, to pass the test and get done with it. The next dimension, remember, there's four dimensions. The next dimension is sensing versus intuitive. And this is how we conceptualize things. And one of the things I like to ask people is when you do a puzzle, do you like to just pour out all the pieces on the table, put the box away and then, you know, figure it out as you go? That is a sensing type temperament. You start with all the individual pieces and then you are come up to some big finale and you figure out what the overarching concept is. Intuitive people pour out all the pieces of the puzzle, but then they set up the box. So they're starting with an image of what they're working towards and they're figuring out, you know, they're looking at the box and they're constantly referencing back to, you know, what they're supposed, what it started out like before it was broken into a million pieces. So that kind of gives you an idea. Are you one of those people who doesn't care about the box? Another example I give is when you are getting ready to watch a television show or a movie, can you just go in blind and, you know, watch it and be surprised and excited or do you need to start by reading the wiki? I'm a wiki kind of person and it drives my husband absolutely bonkers. But you know, I don't tell anybody, but I need to know. I need to have an overarching understanding of what we're going to talk about or what we're going to learn about or see in a movie before I go in. So I have a container sort of, if you want to think about it that way, to put the all the pieces in. I'm very much a top down learner. Why is this important? Well, when you're working with students or even when you're doing group work, you're going to have both temperaments in there. So the sensing person doesn't really care if you have a big reveal at the beginning, if you provide a container. But the intuitive person needs that container. So start out the lesson with an overview of this is what we're learning about today. And ideally this is, you know, why it's important to you. This is why you should care and that's where you have the objectives. You know, when I do my presentations, I always start out with objectives and that's for the intuitive person who is watching the presentations or taking the class so they have a general idea of what they're going to learn about. It's not just a, you know, let's fly by the seat of our pants. It's important to start out lessons like that for intuitive people, for sensing and intuitive people. Sensing people prefer facts and live in the real world. They will love statistics, they will love facts. They will love research. Intuitive people like abstraction, inspiration, insights, meta concepts. So the intuitive person is the one that is going to try to figure out how to solve potentially complex problems. Those meta concepts out there. The sensing person looks at what's going on right now and says, okay, what are the facts that are supporting this? You know, let's take Covid right now, for example. Sensing and intuitive people work really well together. The sensing people are taking the research, the data, the facts, and they're figuring out, okay, now how do we get to a cure? The intuitive people are seeing, you know, this is what. This is the overarching issue that's going on. And these are generally the things we need to do. We need to social distance, we need to have a vaccine, we need to do this, that, and the other. They're sort of abstract concepts where the sensing people are kind of getting things done. Sensing people would rather do than think. They don't like to spend a lot of time pontificating about all the ifs and possibilities and planning and this and that. They would rather get in there and say, okay, this is what we got. Let's make something happen. Intuitive people would rather think than do. They like to come up and figure out, you know, okay, what will this look like in six months? What do we need to do to achieve this image that I have for the resolution in six months? When you're working with students, it's important to recognize that when you give them a group project, for example, or a project, if you're working with an individual homeschooler, the intuitive person is going to spend a lot of time thinking about what is this project going to look like? What am I envisioning? And the sensing person is going to say, okay, let's get down to. Let's get down to business and, you know, pick something and make it happen. Think about a science project. The intuitive person is going to think about, you know, all of the possibilities and what might get them, you know, the best score in a science fair. And they're going to think about a lot of complex issues. They're going to think about, well, they're going to want to think about it. They're going to want to dream about it and come up with this brilliant idea, the sensing person is more practical. And they're going to say, all right, I need to have a science fair project. Let me get a book. Let me pick something and get started on it. Which also takes us to the next thing where sensing people focus on practical, concrete issues. I have an assignment, I need to get it done. These are the steps. Let's move. The intuitive person wants to focus on, you know, the possibilities. If I'm able to devise this scientific solution to something, what are all the possible permutations and how could it benefit me? When you're working with these students, sometimes you need to get the sensing person to kind of pick their head up and look at the possibilities, look at the big picture, because they may miss it. The intuitive person, at a certain point, you need to say, all right, you've got a lot of great ideas, but we need to actually start doing something. And this can be a challenge in classroom or in homeschool to encourage both people to not only see the big picture and see the facts and be able to mush them together and actually take something from beginning to fruition. Sensing people, as I said, may ignore the big picture. They just see the details and they're focused on what's going on right in front of them. Right now, the intuitive person is focusing on the big picture. I've got a project started that, you know, may eventually save the world, but they miss the details of actually implementing it and getting the first round of the project, getting the something concrete down so people can see it. So it's really important again, to make sure that we're working with people. The sensors continually ask them, what is your end goal? What do you see this turning into? What are you hoping will come out of this? And for the intuitive person, you say, okay, I see what you're hoping is going to happen. Now, what's the first thing you need to do to start moving that way? Scenting. People think that those preferring intuition may be impractical because they spend so much time dreaming and so little time doing. Intuitive people often think that those people preferring sensing lack vision. You know, they are so caught up in what's going on right in front of them, they're missing the big picture. And this can be true for people who are, who are on the extremes, but helping them embrace this and recognizing how they can synergize and work together to create something awesome. When I was grant writing, you know, I tend to be much more of an intuitive person. I'm somewhere in the middle, but I lean towards the intuitive. I like to figure out, Okay, I have $250,000 to compete for for this grant. What do I want it to look like? And you know, what's this program that I think would be so wonderful? And then I jot down the sketch of what's going to happen. And then sensing people are more focused on, okay, now what are the steps we need to take in order to put this program actually into practice? What are the finances behind it? What are the, what kinds of needs do we have in terms of transportation and real estate and those sorts of things? So we work really well together. You know, I always worked with someone who was more sensing and they would read through and they would identify any details that I may have skipped. Which, you know, I'll admit I did sometimes. But they had difficulty looking at the grant and figuring out the big picture. It was just overwhelming to them to try to think meta concept. They wanted facts and details. Think about this when you're working with your students. If a student is writing a report. I remember the first time I taught in community college. I mistakenly told my students that they needed to turn in a 10 page report by the end of the semester. And they looked at me with these big deer in headlights eyes like that was an impossible task because they'd never been asked to do that before. And it's important, was important for me to help them break it down and identify, you know, what do you want to talk about? What's the big picture? The big picture is getting a 10 page paper. What's it going to be on? Okay, you've identified the topic, so that's kind of the big picture. Now the details, what do you need to do first? People who are sensing often believe if it isn't broken, don't fix it. They're not ones that are typically looking to try to figure out ways to improve or to tweak or to streamline things. Intuitive people, on the other hand are, we love figuring out how to enhance, to streamline, to make things more efficient. So it's going to be important to recognize the motivations here. If someone is not super motivated, you know, asking them why is it that you're not motivated in, in looking at this particular particular issue. For example, scientists that are working on new psychotropic or mental health medications. A sensing person may not be overly motivated because there's tons of psychotropic medications out there that generally work for a fair number of people. But the intuitive person is going, yeah, but it doesn't work for everybody. How can we help everybody who, who needs medication, get a medication that works. Sensing people focus on the present. Intuitive people focus on the future and possibilities. They're focusing on how we can make a, you know, better world. And the sensing person is focusing on how can we ensure people right now are getting the food they need, they have housing, you know, more practical issues when you're working with students, embracing that your sensors, your in homeschool or in, in the, in the classroom are really going to want a lot of facts and they enjoy problem solving, but they have difficulty creating problems where none exists or getting out of the present and thinking about 5, 10, 15 years from now thinking about big pictures or meta concepts. So encourage them to work on what works for them. Encourage them to work with intuitive people. The intuitive people can, you know, identify the meta concept and the sensing person can figure out, you know, what are the steps that we need to do to achieve that. Thinking versus feeling is the next dimension and this I refer to as the motivation dimension. Thinking people are motivated by fairness, logical consequences, and they respond most easily to people's thoughts. Feelers respond most easily to people's values and guess what, feelings and they value sentiment over objectivity. They're motivated by harmony and peace. So you can have a thinker who is very rational, present certain ideas and you can have a feeler who is very compassionate say, you know, that I'm not so motivated to do that because it's going to make people unhappy or it's going to cause disharmony. That's important to know when we're talking about learning, when we're talking about environments, when thinkers to motivate, thinkers to do their homework, to motivate thinkers to do assignments. You know, we want to talk about how it's practical, how it will benefit them. You know, what are the objective principles to motivate you to do this? You know, if you have a, if you graduate summa cum laude, then you may be able to get a scholarship to medical school, which is what you've said you wanted to do all your life. You know, that's practical, that's fact based. The feeling people are going to be more motivated by why doing this, you know, creates harmony, why it reduces stress in the household, how it can benefit society as a whole if they learn this, if they are responding to harmony. Why is it important to know about history in order to promote societal harmony? What can we learn from history? Why is it important to know about biology in order to, you know, create harmony and, and health in the human race? So you're going to motivate people differently. Thinkers want to apply objective principles, so they want to look at the true, false, they want the facts. They love doing research. You know, that's great. I tend to be in the middle, but I air more toward the thinking side. I love doing research. Feeling people want to apply values and ethics from multiple perspectives. So they want to look at something like stem cell research or, you know, whatever it is, and they want to apply it from multiple perspectives. They want to learn about it and say, okay, now, from a parent's perspective, what does this look like? From a business person's perspective, what does this look like? From the perspective of creating harmony in society, what does this look like? They enjoy thinking about all of the potential ramifications of something. The thinking person looks at the facts. If we do this, this is going to be the. These are going to be the consequences. The feeling person is going to take a more biopsychosocial approach, for example, and look at all of the ripple effects that any change we make might have, which is really important. We need people to apply objective principles to get things done and to make things happen. But we also need people to evaluate the impact of that on multiple people, on society at large. I worked for a man for about 14 years who was, interestingly enough, very much on the feeling side. And whenever you asked him about something, if you proposed something, he was not going to give you an answer right away. He was very much a reflective learner. But he would say, let me think about it. And he would ponder all the potential ways it could impact the organization. What's the school board going to think about it? What's the community going to think about it? What's the impact on our financial bottom line? He was a vice president. That was his job. So he wanted to apply a lot of perspectives to make sure we were making the choice that was or getting ready to do something that was in the best benefit of the entire community that we served. Thinking people value object, objectivity above sentiment. Feeling people value sentiment above objectivity. We don't want to quash people's hearts if they are sentimental. We need to respond to that and understand, you know, how can we make this meaningful to you? Thinking people can assess logical consequences. And feeling people are good at access, at assessing the human impact, which is great. We need people that can do both. It's important to help students who are more thinkers embrace that fact that they are great at assessing logical consequences. Encourage them to be open to hearing perspectives about assessing the human impact they may have difficulty doing it themselves and you can try to force the issue, but that's probably going to add a lot of stress. If you encourage them to embrace their temperament and embrace what they're good at, as well as being open to other perspectives, then you can really enhance synergy. Thinking people may argue both sides of an issue for mental stimulation. Your lawyers are often really good thinking people feeling people prefer to agree with those around them. They don't like disharmony. They're mo since they're motivated by harmony, they don't want to cause conflict, they don't want to cause disagreement. It's important to help people, help students understand that people are going to have different opinions and that's okay. They don't have to agree with them in order to respect them, in order to be friends with them. They can argue both sides of a situation without necessarily, you know, causing irreparable harm. They don't have to cause disharmony is what I'm saying. By necessarily looking at multiple perspectives, it's possible to do both. And it's important to encourage in the classroom as well as independently students to look at both sides of a situation and recognize that it's okay to not agree with everybody. Judging and perceiving, this is your time management dimension and this is one that is really important in with students and in life. So we're going to talk about different interventions here too. Judgers like to plan ahead. We tend to be very structured and I am like off the chart on judging. I like to plan ahead. I love schedules. Judgers tend to be self disciplined and purposeful and thrive on order. Perceivers, on the other hand, love spontaneity. They adapt as they go. They're very flexible and tolerant and that's the world that they like to live in. If they have too much structure, then they may feel like they are, they're being stifled in some way. They need the ability to be spontaneous, sometimes encouraging. In the classroom as well as in homeschool. If you have a perceiver, you know, encouraging them to be creative about ways that they can learn about different things, encourage them to be flexible and adapt to the current, you know, situation. If something's a little bit more difficult or if they suddenly become very interested in something, okay, well, let's adapt that syllabus a little bit to meet your needs. You're interested in something. So we may slow down a little bit here and then we'll pick up again in two weeks or something. The person who's more judging is going to like to follow a syllabus. They like things structured. They want to know what needs to be done, you know, each day, each week, what's expected. They love timelines. That's okay, whoops. And we do want to be sensitive to that for people. Judgers tend to get things done early, plan ahead, and work steadily. These people who are judgers tend to be your ideal students and your ideal employees because they don't need to be micromanaged. They are, you know, like the little engine that could. They just keep plugging and chugging. Perceivers get things done at the last minute depending on a spurt of energy. Most of the time they get things done in terms of homework, in terms of assignments. This is where we can have some challenges in the learning milieu because students who are perceivers may, you know, end up not getting things done, not turning in their homework. So they need to learn how to apply a little bit of structure. With perceivers, giving them a syllabus of assignments that need to be completed each month or each week is going to be less constraining to them and feel less oppressive to them than giving them things that need to be done every single day, which they can feel stifled with. The same thing with, with chores. Judgers really like having a schedule of what they're going to do every single day. Perceivers want a to do list for the week so they can work through it. And that's okay because that gives the perceiver the ability to work on spurts of energy. If they have, they know they have to get all this done by the end of the week. But if they're not feeling it on Monday, then, you know, maybe they'll do have that spurt of energy on Tuesday. Again, the caveat is making sure that eventually they get that spurt of energy so they can get it done. Judgers define and work within limits. They know what needs to be done, to what degree, and when it's due. Perceivers always want more information. They want to find out. They want more information about how to get it done and what exactly do you want it to look like. Rubrics are really helpful if you give students scoring rubrics for their assignments, that can help the judger define their limits and work within those, and that gives the perceiver the information that they may crave. Judgers may be hasty in making decisions where perceivers may fail to make decisions altogether. Think about if you say, well, you need to pick a topic for your science fair project, the judger may check out a book, you know, Flip through it, say, okay, this looks like a good one, and be done with it. The perceiver may check out 15 books and then go online to try to find the one project that just speaks to them. So they're constantly trying to find out. They don't want to miss out. There's a lot of FOMO with perceivers. Judgers tend to think that people preferring spontaneity are too unpredictable, predictable. You know, they like to have their structure, their syllabi, their. Their schedules. People who are perceivers think that those who are not spontaneous are too rigid now, you know, being someone who is, you know, very rigid. And, you know, my husband is very much a perceiver, and that was something we had to compromise on early in our relationship because he would get frustrated that I was so stuck on my schedule when something would come up. He's like, let's go do this. You can do your work later. And I'm like, no, two o'. Clock. I'm supposed to be doing this. I can't do that now. And that was very frustrating to him. Recognizing this in students is really important. They're not going to adjust very well if they're not giving forward ahead of time information about changes in schedule, whether it's a, you know, some sort of convocation or, you know, recess or maybe school's called out or something. It throws them for a loop when their schedule is disrupted. Perceivers, on the other hand, love that kind of stuff. So they don't have as much of a problem. They don't get as stressed out by it. When we used to have snow days when, you know, I lived in Indiana, and the first question in my mind was, well, I was supposed to have a test today, so when am I going? When is this test going to happen? Are we going to have it tomorrow? Are they going to postpone it? And I would get very stressed about when that test was coming up. Perceivers, on the other hand, had already put on their snowsuits and were out, you know, snowboarding judgers are excellent planners, but they may not appreciate or make use of things which are not planned, planned, or expected. So when something spontaneous comes up, like, oh, you have an opportunity to go visit this museum, a judger may not take advantage of that because it wasn't scheduled in. They're like, nope, I have what I need. And that's just that that will throw my schedule off and that's too stressful. We need to be respectful of the judger and, you know, maybe help them learn to be a little bit More flexible, but you know, being respectful of the fact that changing schedules, especially at the last minute, is extremely stressful. The perceivers, on the other hand, love unplanned events. If you say, oh, by the way, we have this opportunity to go to a concert, they're like, score. I'm all over it. But if they're given multiple options, you know, they have multiple sudden things come up. They may not make effective choices. Among the possibilities, they may choose to go to the concert or the museum because that came up and it sounded really interesting, but they didn't really factor in the fact that they hadn't done any of their lessons yet that week. So then they may not get their lessons done. It's really important to help perceivers learn how to manage time effectively and ideally, you know, help judgers learn how to again, pick their heads up once in a while and at least consider options when they present themselves. Learning styles I told you earlier, there are three primary learning styles. Visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Visual students learn best by reading. They want to see something. When they remember things, they can close their eyes and a lot of times see it in their mind's eye. When I would take tests, I could sort of close my eyes and see that passage highlighted in the text. Visual students learn best by reading. If they have to be in a lecture or they're, you know, watching a lecture on, on the computer, it's important for them to be able to take notes in to make what they're. The information they're taking in to put it into a visual format. They benefit from graphs, charts, timelines, illustrations and highlighting anything they can visualize. So when they're learning history, timelines are huge. They can even do art projects here if you want to increase some of the creativity with the visualization, all any way that you can present it so the information is coming in through their eyes is going to help them get it into their memory more easily if they're visual learners. Flashcards and worksheets can also be super helpful when my son, who is tends to be more of a visual learner, when he learns he makes flashcards and he studies them, you know, a lot, getting ready and he can see the flashcards in his mind's eye. He will also, you know, chart out things. Auditory learners learn best by hearing. So obviously we want to engage them in dialogue. They benefit from lecture. They can listen to podcasts, they can listen to pre recorded lectures. They love discussion because they're hearing what they're talking about is coming in through their ears. They also can benefit by listening to recorded notes. Even if they don't record the lecture, they can record their notes and listen to them while they're cleaning or, you know, doing whatever. You can also engage them in games like Taboo or Jeopardy or some other kind of game in which they're going to have to talk about the information. Anytime the information is presented verbally, they are going to benefit from it. Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing so. Walk them through it step by step. If you are teaching a kinesthetic learner how to use a computer program, they're going to benefit. If you are with them step by step and you say, okay, click here and they get to do it. And then you say, okay, now do this. And then they get to do it. Walk them through it. If you're doing math problems with them, walk them through it. If it's a basic math problem, something that's concrete, they do really well with manipulatives or drawing it out so they can make some sort of an illustration where they can see how things fit together together. Manipulatives are really helpful for kinesthetic learners. And having them do things instead of just read about it or hear about it, they really conceptualize and master the material better when they can do it. Experiments are wonderful if you're teaching. I talked about in one of the other videos how when my son was in first grade, I was teaching him Newton's laws and. And we actually practiced doing things like equal and opposite reaction with throwing a tennis ball. And we. We learned about friction by sliding down the hallway in our socks and then in our bare feet. And they learn a lot better by actually working with the material and saying, okay, I see. I actually know how this works now. When you're trying to teach literature, you're like, how can you kinesthetically learn literature plays? Encourage them to act. You know, with most any literature, you can act things out or you can create a diorama that represents what somebody's talking about in a poem or something like that. You can have them actually create quizzes and games. This can help them manipulate the material in their mind to paraphrase it so they learn it better and they can also teach it to you or to the class. And finally, one other aspect of learning style, and we talked about this a little bit earlier, is active versus reflective, active learning. Active learners learn as they go, and it's more common in extroverts. They like learning and putting things together and putting pieces together, and they just have this kind of Continual Aha. Moment. Reflective learners take in the information, they put it together, they mull it around and then they have this light bulb. Moment. Reflective learners need time to digest information in group activities. Take frequent breaks to give reflective learners a time to conceptualize. Academic success impacts students self esteem by providing frequent small successes. It empowers them and reduces depression and hopelessness and even helplessness by teaching them how to solve problems. And it opens up a world of possibilities to them as they start seeing, oh, there are different ways to do this, there are different schools of thought. All of a sudden they may find a place where they feel like they fit better or feel like they're more understood. It reduces anxiety by helping them develop an I can mantra and learn how to embrace failure as a learning opportun opportunity. We're not going to be good at everything all the time. And it's important for students to identify where their strengths are and recognize that they are lovable and valuable and awesome because of who they are with their strengths and their weaknesses. Each child has their own unique learning needs based on their learning style and temperament. So you need to consider each one of those dimensions individually and think to yourself, which one sounds more like my child and how can I make their learning environment more supportive of this dimension? It sounds like a lot of work and yeah, it is at first, but you do it once and you've got it. Henceforth and forevermore. Students learning styles and temperaments really don't change that much as they age. You can also take this information and teach them about it so they learn how they learn. And they can henceforth and forevermore start figuring out how to adapt their learning environments when they're in college, when they're in the workplace in order to best meet their learning needs. Once children know how they learn best, they can be empowered to modify lessons and study habits to accommodate their unique needs. That will enhance their self efficacy which will and hopefully help them succeed, which will increase their self esteem and reduce depression and anxiety. All right, thank you for being with me. I appreciate you being patient as we went through this. If you work in a classroom, this is one of my favorite books of all time. It's called Effective Teaching Effective Learning by Alice M. Fairhurst and Lisa L. Fairhurst. Making the personality connection in your classroom. And they go into each temperament, each of the 16 temperaments in depth. So if you work in a classroom, you may be interested in this. It takes it way deeper than what we went over today. Everybody, have a great day. If this podcast helps you help your clients or yourself. Please support us by purchasing your ceus@allce.com or getting your agency to sponsor an episode. A direct link to the on demand CEUs for this podcast is@allce.com podcastceus that's allce.com podcastceus to sponsor an episode of Counselor Toolbox and reach over 50,000 clinicians per week, go to allce.com sponsor thank you.