Learning styles of Myers-Briggs Type Indicators

Abstract

This research study illustrated that personlaity type influences learning type.The study compared the personalities expressed in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI)to Felder and Silverman's(1998)Index of Learning Styles(ILS).Phase one was a combined MBTI and ILS assessment that was administered to 105 participants.To further define learning style,phase two was a follw-up questionnaire administered to 37 participants and was based on Goley's(1982)Learning Pattern(LP)assessment.The research did indicate a correlation between specific dichotomies of MBTI,ILS and LP.The Extravert and Introvert dichotomy in MTBI appeared to correlate with the Active and Reflective dichotomy in ILS.Furthermore,a relationship emerged for MBTI Sensing and the ILS Sensory dichotomy,although no connection appeared in MBTI and the ILS Intuitive dichotomies.Moreover,participants who preferred MBTI Sensing dichotomy generally preferred Sequential learning.Participants with Intuitive personality in MBTI appeared to be either Sequential or Global learners.Finally,it was interesting to note that 68% of the participants scored as Visual as opposed to Verbal learners.The findings indicated personality does affect leaning styles.Curriculum designers and corporate trainers should consider personality in their training.Although the number of participants was small,the findings were significant enough to indicate that further research could improve training effectiveness and should be conducted.