The Association of Personality Characteristics with Learning Strategy Preferences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the association between the learning strategy preference of the learners as identified by Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS (ATLAS) and the individual personality traits as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The sample was 553 adults in Canada and the United States. Two types of analyses were used to investigate the association between learning strategy preferences and personality traits. First, discriminant analysis explored the interaction of personality traits with the learning strategy preference. Second, analysis of variance measured the association of each personality trait with the learning-strategy-preference groups separately. The findings provided several explicit personality traits associated with each learning-strategy-preference group. These findings support the conclusion that a strong association exists between personality traits and learning-strategy-preference characteristics. Learning strategy preferences and personality traits complement each other. Each clarifies and enriches the other. As a result, teachers have two indicators that can help them personalize the teaching-learning environment for each student. Teachers can use the learning-strategy-group descriptions as guides for organizing each learner's instructional activities and plans and as a cognitive framework for uncovering and monitoring student behaviors and alerting teachers to potential learning difficulties for some students. Students can apply the descriptions of the learning-strategy-preference groups to facilitate self-assessment and metacognition. Theory can be enhanced by considering the two concepts of learning strategy preferences and personality traits coupled and by conducting quantitative and qualitative research to test and expand the generalizability of the learning-strategy-group descriptions. (Permission is granted to use Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS and the Personality Identity Estimator in practice and research. Links to printable copies and online completion are appended.)