_thumb.png "Type is not meant to box you in; it is designed to help us understand ourselves and others better.")
An "Aha" Moment: Type in the Classroom (Research Series - NC Part 1)
Over the years, relevant research has been conducted using the MMTIC® assessment. In these new Research Series articles, we will highlight studies that are useful to all of us who work with the MMTIC system. The first project is a large two-year study at Combs Elementary in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the MMTIC instrument and system were comprehensively incorporated into the school system. (Follow these links to read Part 2 and Part 3.)
In the 2018-19 school year, CAPT funded the first year study with third-grade teachers and students at Combs Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina, utilizing the MMTIC assessment. Researchers at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, North Carolina State University, in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Murphy, and CAPT, designed and executed a mixed-method applied outcome study with eight teachers and 137 third-grade students. The Friday Institute employed a comprehensive design that included training, empirical surveys, interviews and focus groups, and ethnographic observations, as well as the generation and collection of artifacts, such as lesson plans and student projects.
The aims and intentions of the study were to test the impact of knowledge and application of type broadly to teachers, students, and parents. In particular, the study inquired into how incorporating type into language, choices, and lesson plans impacted the teacher's sense of effectiveness; how the students' knowledge of their type and the type of their classmates fostered a sense of belonging in the classroom; and how knowledge of their child's type impacted the parents' ability to support their child in school.
Previous to the study, public schools in the county had been sending some of their teachers and staff to training on the MBTI instrument and theory. When the prospect of an applied study with the MMTIC assessment was brought to them, the Principal and staff at Combs Elementary already knew how valuable knowledge of psychological type was and agreed to incorporate it into their school.
The study began with a Preparation phase of professional development for the third-grade teachers. Dr. Murphy designed and conducted a 2-day interactive training session on incorporating type into the classroom. The study had a big impact on how teachers taught across the board (and will be the topic of future articles in this series). An initial profound insight was when they received feedback on their own type during the professional development training. With the training and feedback, the teachers realized they had been arranging their lessons and teaching their students according to their own type. By first having an individual "aha" moment of their own, the teachers were able to learn type more deeply and apply it more readily to their students, as well as each other. As one teacher remarked about a quiet colleague whom she didn't understand, "I found out the characteristics of her type and I thought, 'she just needs time to think'."
One of the great values in psychological type is how readily it is understood by most people, even children. Type offers a way to frame people's choices and preferences that brings meaningful distinction into what drives people's behavior. The MBTI/MMTIC systems also provide distance between a person's behavior and the impact it may have on us subjectively; no longer mysterious or confusing, it is easily understood as a natural expression of a preference that all people have and utilize all the time. This was also an important learning moment for us at CAPT as it demonstrated, again, the power of the experience of learning one's own type for the first time.
