Academic teaching and personality diversity of students

In educational settings, personality diversity in the Extraversion/Introversion dimension seems to be a form of diversity that has not been amply addressed, though some research has been done. This may lead to discrimination through exclusion of certain personalities from the teaching process. In the academic year 21/22 I carried out an innovation teaching project with the goal to explore how the educational design can be adapted to better take into account the diversity in personalities as regards the Extraversion/Introversion dimension. Concretely, the goal was to design the teaching meetings in such a way as to create inclusive meetings that are positive and comfortable experiences not only for people with extraverted personality traits but also for people with introverted personality traits, and that stimulate to participate and interact actively in the teaching activities. As part of the project, two questionnaires were sent out to the first-semester Master students of the programs MA Rehabilitation, MSc Health Sciences and MA Prevention and Intervention in Childhood that participated in the course. One at the start of the semester, and the other, an adapted evaluative questionnaire, at the end of the semester. The first questionnaire consisted of two blocks, one about personality and another one about preferences towards teaching. For the block about personality (Extraversion/Introversion as a personality trait) a short 10-item Extraversion scale was used. The questionnaire all in all was a short 2-minute questionnaire and this was clearly communicated to the students. Seventy-two out of the 102 registered students responded at least to one of the items in the questionnaire, which gives a response rate of 71 %. The second questionnaire was implemented at the end of the semester, after the last meeting and exam. 24 students responded which gives a response rate of almost 24 %. This questionnaire contained again the short Extraversion scale and a few blocks with an evaluation of the teaching methods and activities used throughout the semester. The results of both questionnaires show a preference of most students towards non-traditional teaching methods, tools and techniques that don´t entail verbal interaction in groups, but instead give room for other types of communication and interaction, such as the use of an anonymous online tool to write instead of speak and “backchannel communication”, and a disinclination towards verbal participation in groups. There were however no important correlations found with the Extraversion 10-item scale. In my presentation, I will present the innovation project and the results of the questionnaires, and discuss implications for an inclusive educational design that takes into account personality diversity as regards the Extraversion/introversion domain. To make sure education in academic institutions is adapted to a diversity in personality traits, more research is needed to map common educational practices in academic teaching, personalities of students, and their preferences and experiences with these educational practices.