Apr 20, 2008

Book Summary: Gifts Differeing: Part 3 Type and Learning

THE MOST CONSPICUOUS relationship between type and education lies in the apparent advantage enjoyed by intuitives in most academic fields. They gravitate into higher education...

-- Gifts Differing

Words, being symbols, are abstract. The translation of words into meaning is therefore easier for intuitive type children than for sensing type children. And consequently, intuition type children enjoys schools more. One way to help sensing type student is to introduce the sound-symbol relationship explicitly early in school.

The type theory states that the sensing type students prefer actuality and facts, whereas the intuitive type students prefers abstract and theory. In other words, their interests are different. And because interest is the vital driving force of learning, sensing type students and intuitive type students tend to focus their attention on different subjects. It is no surprise that the majority of science and liberal arts students are of N type, and the majority of finance and commerce students are of S type.

The difference between S and N type students presents a challenge to teachers. Any subject is a combination of facts and theory, and the way a teacher presents a subject is likely to bore half of the audience half of the time. One way to get around this problem is to create interests in all students about both the facts and the theory, which is by no means an easy task.

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