Journal Entry #2 - The Power Of Introverts!

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it" (Finch, A., 1960).

Objective Questions: Begin with Data, Facts, External Reality

Personality is defined as: “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s unique character” (Robinson, J., 2014). Extraverts and Introverts are considered the Yin & Yang of our personality, with introverts being the Yin to the extroverted Yang side of the population.  Introverts constitute about one third of the world population.  This journal entry is based on my reflection on Susan Cain’s TED talk, “The Power of Introverts” and on her book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Doesn’t Stop Talking. She starts the presentation by reflecting on her summer camp experience at an early age where she was encouraged to be ‘rowdy’ at all times and to actively participate in group activities when preferred to be alone, reading her books instead.    

Reflective: What are my initial feelings about the video?

My initial reaction was that of awe. After watching Cain’s presentation, all I could think about was how her own childhood journey matched mine. I was often shy, and never possessed a loud and outgoing personality. Today, I have no issues communicating or socializing, but it certainly is not my natural response. After listening to Cain’s journey to being a high powered Wall Street lawyer, I was suddenly possessed by an urge to find out more about myself. I wanted to know where I fell in the extrovert-introvert continuum. I knew I possessed a more introverted personality, but Cain’s presentation ignited a long dormant curiosity.  Thus, I took the introvert/extrovert quiz posted on https://psychologies.co.uk/self/are-you-an-introvert-or-an-extrovert.html.  Despite having thought originally that I only mildly possessed some of the introverts’ personality, the result suggested that I am in fact an extreme introvert. Originally, this took me by surprise, nonetheless the results affirmed why I was neither as outgoing nor talkative as my parents would have liked me to be during my youth. However, it suddenly occurred to me that this was likely the reason why I had so few friends and were quite selective in choosing them in the first place. One point I found myself nodding was to Cain’s statement about how lifestyle and culture has a profound influence on our level of introverted or extroverted (ness) and how much of those aspects we exhibit in our daily lives. Still, what angered me was learning about the stigma that is still attached to introversion. I did not like the fact that such a dominant aspect of my personality is looked down upon, especially in light of my past achievements and successes. Why should my personal value be determined by how much I could talk without annoying someone else? It also suddenly dawned upon me how culture had long influenced the way I think feel and interact socially. When I was a youth in Iran, men were (still are really) mostly in charge of economics and education, making introversion almost default for women there. Even though in modern Iran, women have started finding their own voice, only a few have found the recognition that they deserve, such as Shirin Ebadi for her work in law, promoting women and children’s rights and Maryam Mirzakhani who won the nobel prize in mathematics. Their achievements make certainly emphasize the power of introverts whether they are artificially created by culture or just born that way.

Interpretive Questions: Draw out the meaning, Values, Significance, Implications

            After thinking about the topic for some time, I started to really think about whether Cain was right or whether society was right. Was it really more important to get along with society or to engage in quiet contemplation? The conclusion I came to was that it was important to have a balance. North America’s obsession with extroverts comes with a price; introverts get relegated to unimportant positions and roles without ever having revealed their true potential. This is a social and talent goldmine that society is neglecting. Instead of pushing people like myself away, society should be looking for ways to properly integrate and utilize our skills. Research on this topic shows that strong organizations have human resources specialists that help recruits choose their roles and align with personalities types that would enhance their productivity (Karimi, 1996). However, as much as I would like to espouse further on Cain’s points, I do recognize that extroversion is an important aspect of human nature too. Just thinking about society makes me realize how little humanity would achieve if we were unable to efficiently communicate. Some of the best inventions would have never seen the light of day as they collected dust within our minds.

In addition, extroverts tend to live more healthy lives as they tend to vocalize concerns and thus receive more assistance and social support, leading to longer lives (Grainge et al, 2000).  As such, the implications of this of course is that in fact personality types is not only one of the fundamental issues in psychology but also must be given a lot more attention and focus in the workforce as well as in academia. It is through this significant importance that the relationship between culture and personality type have found a rather special place in research in the field of humanities as well as in social science.

Decisional Questions: Bring the Conversation to a Close, Eliciting Resolution to Make a Decision About The Future.  (What are you going to do about it, what is your personal position on it?)

In conclusion, I believe that Susan Cain’s presentation outlined the dichotomy between different personality types quite well, while highlighting a few reasons behind the extrovert dominance in our society. While she managed to give a few ideas as to how this shift in focus could be possible, I believe that all individuals possess both introvert as well as extrovert qualities within themselves, therefore it is necessary to cultivate both sides in order to achieve flexibility in a dynamic environment, which much of North America is. This type of thinking is also important in the role of Childhood Education. The current model is terribly didactic and essentially hoists social expectations upon the child, instead of letting them recognize their own potential. However, as an educator I have noticed that the point of education is to prepare a student for the rigours of surviving in society, so it is necessary to adhere to a standard, but not so much that it throttles the abilities of a child. We live in a time of great prosperity, but it is also a time that is rife with conflict and potential worldwide catastrophes, humanity must harvest the most from our greatest resource: our children. I’m quite proud to be a natural introvert; it has brought me to where I am today. However, to be a proper child educator, I cannot sit comfortably in the confines of my own thoughts. Instead, I must reach deep within and present my inner extrovert in order to ensure that the children under my care find a balance in their lives.

References

Bergin, J. (2006). Introvert-Extrovert, Pace University, Last Updated for content: 
      March 24, 2003(For form January 12, 2006)

Briggs, M. (2013). On Ambiverts: Why Distinguishing Between Extroverts and 
      Introverts is Inadequate. Retrieved From: http://diplateevo.com/on-ambiverts
      -why-distinguishing-between-extroverts-and-introverts-is-inadequate/

De Dreu,K., Bechtoldt, M.N, & Nijstad,B.A. (2003). Diversity and the Creative 
    Capacity of Organisations and Teams, Sustainable Development in a
    Diverse World (SUS.DIV) Position Paper of Research Task 3.2, University of
    Amsterdam, Department of Psychology, the Netherlands

Grainge, M.J., Brugha, T.S., & Spiers, N. (2000). Social Support, Personality 
    and Depressive Symptoms Over 7 Years: The Health and Lifestyle Cohort. Soc. 
    Psychiatry Psychair Epidimol, no.35. p. 366-375.

Karimi, Y. (1996). Personality Psychology. Tehran, Publication of Virayesh.

Mulligan , R. (Director), & Pakula, A. (Producer). (1962). To kill A Mockingbird 
    [Motion Picture]. Pakula-Mulligan Brentwood Productions, Universal Pictures, 
    United States

Robinson, J. (2014).  How to thrive in an introverted /? Extroverted workplace, 
    Published in Phys.Org

Soufi, M. (2012).  The Studying of the Relationship between Personality Type 
    (Extrovert or Introvert) and the Personals Organizational Citizen Behavior, 
    Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, Vol.4, No.8

Appreciative Inquiry!

The Appreciative Inquiry Model (AI) has evolved over the past few years and has taken a new direction allowing the educators and learners to collectively, passionately, and persistently ask questions about the subject matter at hand. From what I understand, it is based on the problem solving approach that expands one’s understanding enabling them to surpass the learning obstacles and thus allowing them to not only explore new ideas but to force them to change it by means of discovery and inquiry.

What I found rather interesting about this topic and is in fact noted repeatedly in literature, is that: “lasting change in individuals’ learning comes from problem resolution but from discovery”.

Nonetheless, I don't think  that  appreciative inquiry in its true sense is a simple concept. It certainly feels that appreciative inquiry is based on the idea that everyone thrives on being positive. However, I know of a lot of people who actually thrive on negativity. Personally, there's little that motivates me to achieve more than someone telling me that I can't do it or that I'm not good enough. I really feel that in general, if someone is neutral or encouraging, it puts me into a mentality of complacency. How would we adapt appreciative inquiry into a method that would be more universal for the differing types of personalities out there?  

Critical Thinking & Questioning Techniques

Critical Thinking 

I was looking forward to my colleague : Shelley' facilitation of this discussion topic as I will also be facilitating this topic in Week 6-7 of our class.  I like how she started the discussion forum, mainly because the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the topic of choice in the discussion forums was "how to do we in fact teach critical thinking?"  How I view the subject is that we ought to have learned to think critically ourselves first prior to teaching it to our learners.

Thus, I think, teaching our students how to think critically is rather difficult while at the same time the first role of schooling is to teach students and to enable them to think critically. Furthermore, how one learns to think critically is through experience, learning from their mistakes along with experimentation and trial and errors. If anything, encouraging critical thinking is not an exercise that is accomplished with questions. 

If anything, the best thing to do while finding a balance in traditional learning is to simply provide material and assignments as per usual, but allow the students to evaluate themselves and how they reached their finished product. Helping students to be critical of their own work makes them think more critically than just simply asking them any question.

In essence, this is creating critical thinking through applicable means as opposed to just being theoretical.

This video really helped me to think about this topic from a different perspective : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpPKRFh-yCc

Stimulating Thinking Through Socratic Questioning

"Do not take what I say as if I were merely playing, for you see the subject of our discussion—and on what subject should even
a man of slight intelligence be more serious?—namely,
what kind of life should one live . . ."
- Socrates

This is one of Socrates quotes that has fascinated me the most. I believe one of the settings in which the Socratic Questioning could be used is in classroom discussions.

I found that what is absolutely amazing about the Socrates Questioning is that it is not based merely on lectures, power points or a lesson plan. Rather, Socrates Questioning bases its principles on a shared dialogue and the individuals`mutual understanding as well as respect for one another`s thoughts. Now that I have come across the correct terminology for it, I can say with confidence that we use it almost regularly in the field of Early Childhood Education. 

Group work and Learning In an Adult Environment

Even though I haven't implemented group work into my classes yet, I certainly see the potential and look forward to trying in the near future.

The advantages of group work in my opinion is that it fosters cooperation between children. In many cultures, education is competitive by nature and creates a selfish learning environment. This may be good for finding the best student, but is actually counter productive to finding someone that is productive when they are finally in the working world and forced into team situations. It's even worse if one is thrust into a group of leaders all vying for power and getting zero done. In addition individual learning in a traditional environment is limiting, as one is not open to the ideas of others and ends up being very insular in their perspective. 

However, group work is not all sunshine and rainbows, it runs counter to the current teaching paradigm. Making group work effective means changing a lot of the practices that instructors are used to. Teachers have to learn to facilitate group work instead of simply giving students things to do together while sitting back and having some coffee. Such an approach would only confuse students who do not naturally engage with others.

To me, the success of group work actually makes teaching more difficult, but it seems like an exercise that will foster a stronger generation of teachers who are flexible in their perspective and abilities. Teachers have to learn to work in a group with each other and with their students.

Digital Tools...

     

         In this day and age incorporating some technological tools in learning has become a necessity. The fact that many educators are hesitant to incorporate technologically advanced tools or resources in their classroom is something that resonates with me personally given that using technologically advanced tools is often out my comfort zone and I try to avoid it as much as I can unless I completely have to. In the field of Early Childhood Education, however, the educators who are against the incorporation of technology in their classes, suggest that the child must learn to rely on themselves and learn to use their innate capabilities and wisdom rather than be dependent on technological assistance. 

       For my Instructional Strategies project, I used Prezi as my technological resource. As it was my first time using this resource, I had to go over the in-depth tutorial that was provided in the website. Although, I found the tutorial quite informative, once I started the project, one of the things that was quite time consuming to do was matching the voice-cues to the slide's transition. It took quite some time for me and several attempts to get it right, only to  find out that the transition between the slide shots could not be controlled as much. I think you get the idea now: that while having such resources at our disposal could provide us with the opportunity to have a better product to present to our audience, it can be time consuming and actually make learning less engaging for the novices who are using the new technology. 

A Brief Reflection on Visible Learning and Instructional Strategies!

One of the interesting topics covered in week three of the course was titled: Visible Learning: Instructional Strategies.

We were provided with the following  list of teaching strategies and were asked to rank each category from most to list importance from 1-10, 1 having the most influence on student achievement and 10 being that factor that that has the least effect on  students learning and achievements.

The list was as follows:

·         Small group learning

·         Meta-cognitive strategies

·         Class size

·         Social skills programs

·         Teacher subject matter knowledge

·         Challenging goals

·         Self-reported grades

·         Not labeling students

·         Exercise/relaxation programs

·         Multi-grade/age classes

From experience and based on my own personal point of view I have re-ordered and structured the

list as the following:

(1) Small Group Learning

(2) Teacher Subject Matter Knowledge

(3) Not Labeling Students

(4) Social Skills Programs

(5) Class Size

(6) Meta-Cognitive Strategies

(7) Challenging Goals

(8) Self-Reported Grades

(9) Exercise/Relaxation Programs

(10) Multi-grade/age classes

Given that it was mentioned this ranking is based on adult learner, I will have to shift focus a little in order to allow for its applicability in the field of early childhood education. Therefore, once I start my teaching career, I will try to shift the focus of my classrooms into a more informal setting that is more learner-centered as opposed to being “educator-centered.”  In addition, I have to constantly keep in mind that each child is unique, and different to a great extent from an adult learner. So, It is very important for me to broaden my understanding of each individual child’s learning pace and abilities. 

Visible Learning - Activating The Learner...

         Reflecting on the concept of Visible Learning has been a little bit of a conundrum for me. Overall, I understand the new to demonstrate to students that what they have learned has made a positive influence in their education. From being able to visibly see the result of their learning, they are then positively motivated on a scale of one to ten to keep learning. Even though Hettie himself said not to simplify his findings into numbers, I can see why it can be difficult not to. However, my problem does not stem from wanting to quantify his findings numerically, but on whether visible learning is possible on a larger scale. The ability to see progress varies from student to student. There were times I found myself more successful than my peers in a classroom despite the fact that they seemed to understand the material far better than I did. 

         During those times, I wondered if I had simply gamed the system: learned to exploit the material or was better at taking tests then them. Most of the time I finished with an A, but I did not feel any “smarter” than I did before. So my question is how do we implement the idea of visible learning so that everyone could have felt the same way as my friends did back in university? How do we make everyone feel that learning has positively benefited the student? Even more importantly, how do we know that Hettie’s data was not provided by apathetic students looking to make a quick dollar out of an academic survey? All cynicism aside, I do believe that broadening the positive feeling of learning for every student is the primary obstacle in making visible learning the “Holy Grail” it has been touted to be. After all, even I admit the times I felt that I learned something in class was when I felt the desire to actually learn more. 

         My own solution to the problem is simply to increase the amount of teacher/student interaction in the classroom. Visible learners ought to be spending more time with their teachers so they are better able to understand each other. But in a system that prioritizes results over method, it makes me wonder if that will be a possibility in the near future. It certainly makes me feel that visible learning is another lofty goal that is just out of reach, much like the Holy Grail itself.