Extraversion and classroom behavior: effects on learning and distraction

Extraversion: How Does Extraversion Effect Classroom Behavior

Working in a participative management environment tends to foster more interaction among team members and requires individuals who have robust social skills and in turn can lead to greater social interactions in a class or other venue that can be a major source of pleasure and happiness for highly extroverted individuals, which, in turn, generates positive moods and ultimately overall happiness (Benoliel, 2010). Anyone who has been in a classroom environment for any sufficient amount of time has undoubtedly noticed that there are many different personalities in most groups that contribute to the classroom discussion in any number of ways.

Some students may be actively following the lectures and discussions, but rarely make a contribution unless they are specifically called upon to do so. Other students may be reserved and quite, but as opposed to following along they may be doing other activities such as working on an assignment for another class or maybe be killing time on Facebook or some other non-school related activity. Some people that might exhibit such classroom behaviors may have more of an introverted personality type. By contrast, students with extroverted personality types may have significantly different classroom behaviors and learning styles in general. While some may be keen to be active in all the classroom discussions, others may be less interested in the discussion and focus on other social aspects that might be found in a classroom setting such as trying to communicate with neighboring students about random things not relevant to the discussion.

Yet the extroverted personalities who are engaged in the class and are serious about using their classroom time to further their own knowledge on the subject, can be a valuable addition to the class for all members. There have been several studies that have looked at the effects of students with variations in the continuum of introversion and extroversion and how these personalities may adapt to, deter from, or enhance a classroom. For example, one study found that extroverts performed better than introverts in environments that had background distractions present; although both personality types did roughly equally well and an environment free of distractions (Ylias & Heaven, 2003). Therefore, it seems evident from previous research that while extroverts have the potential of using their personalities characteristics to contribute to the classroom environment under the right circumstances, however under different circumstances the opposite could be said and extroverted students could represent a distraction that hinders many of the other learners.

Hypothesis

Given the brief literature review that was conducted, one hypothesis would be that extroverted students who are creating distractions in class, such as by talking to others during class lectures or discussions, would be more likely to bother introverts more so than extroverts since it was found that extroverts were able to learn with the presents of distractions better than introverts.

It is also hypothesized that extroverts who are actively engaged in the class and use their contributions to further the classroom discussions by making meaningful contributions to classroom discussions or who ask appropriate questions during lectures would enhance the classroom experience for all students despite their specific personality profiles.

Methods

The study will use a standard Big 5 personality profile inventory test to collect information about the entire classes individual personality profiles.

There are several of the Big 5 test available online and either a printed test or an online test could be administered. The online testing systems might be the best alternative since they can compile the data effortless and automatically identify different trends.

The results of the profiles and the summaries of the student that takes the profile should be given to them and providing them their results could provide them insights on their individual personality make-up according to the Big 5 personality test.

The student's personality profiles can be kept anonymous and it isn't crucial to the research that the individual students are able to be identified by name. However, an anonymous indicator such as a number assigned to each student should be sufficient.

In addition to the Big 5 personality profiles, students will also be provided a questionnaire that asks them to identify and describe some of the students in the class that have acted as the biggest distractions to learning during lectures and class discussions. They will also rate the level of distractions that these students have caused from their perspective on a scale between one and 7.

The class will also be asked to complete a questionnaire that asks several questions about which students have contributed the most, in a positive manner, to furthering classroom discussions and asking informed and relevant questions during the classes lectures. A supplementary set of questions could also be designed to rate the strongest and weakest contributors to any group discussion or assignments that were present in the class.

Discussion

The results of the questionnaires can be coded and compiled in various ways to illustrate the intended insights that either support or invalidate the studies hypothesizes.

The first step will to build a list of both the students who were rated as the best classroom contributors based on the student's opinions, as well as those that were identified as the most distracting members of the classroom. Once this list is compiled the personality profiles of these individuals can be combined with their rankings to see if there is any correlation with their level of extroversion. Furthermore, although it's not part of the primary study, it would also be interesting to see if any of the other big 5 traits had significant correlations among the best and the worst list of students. For example, it could be the case that those who contribute the most to classroom discussion are also high in conscientiousness.

One the best and worst list of students are compiled along with their personality profiles then these lists can also be compared with the personality profiles of the students that assessed them. For example, it was hypothesized that introverts would be more critical of the extroverted personalities that caused frequent distractions, while extroverts may not rate these distractions the same based on the fact that previous research has shown that extroverts typically perform better in the face of distractions.