9.1 Understanding Personality In Class Activity
Amanda Dafoe
Overview
This is an in class activity that is a thoughtful opener to the class discussions on personality. It allows students the opportunity to think of themselves objectively, so that when discussing personality and attitudes at work they have already begun to think of their personal self in that space. It is a good idea for the instructor to model the assignment on the whiteboard, or computer screen, as the students work on it. Students are more willing to engage in authentic self assessment when seeing their instructor take part as well.
Grade
No grading structure as it is an assignment to help foster thinking and discussion. If a student struggles to participate generally due to anxiety or shyness, participating in these sorts of in class activities can help boost any class participation mark.
Learning Outcomes
-Prepare students for the discussion on personality
-Enable students to think about themselves structurally
-Engage in active learning about the unit
What is Needed
-A piece of paper for every student
-Markers, coloured pencils, multi coloured pens
Activity
-Have the students fold the paper into four quadrants: 1. Facts; 2. Positive things about their personality; 3. Negative things about their personality; 4. Other people’s perception of them.
-Allow 10-15 minutes for the activity, encourage them to draw images on the page to correspond to the information.
-Provide examples/Self model the assignment. Facts can include things like: nationality, degrees held, which hand you write with etc. Positive may include things like: good attention to detail, creative, etc. Negative may include: bossy, procrastinator, etc Other people can include information from any of the other categories such as Instructor, welcoming, hard marker, etc
Discussion
Once time is up, don’t ask students to share the details of what they have written but ask more general questions: What section was the easiest to fill out, what was hardest, do we really understand how other people perceive us, or are we assuming? How many answers could fit multiple categories? Tell students to keep their answers in mind as the class lecture on personality begins.
