Personality Strengths and Weaknesses Multiple

¶ … Personality Strengths and Weaknesses

Multiple Intelligences Testing: Defining a Career Strategy in Education

After completing the Multiple Intelligence Survey by Walter McKenzie, my strengths of interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist and logical/mathematical skills emerged from the analysis. My weakness in verbal and linguistic skills also emerged. The goal of this paper is to evaluate how my existing strengths can be used for furthering my educational career. I also plan to address how my weaknesses, specifically in the verbal and linguistic area, can also be turned into a strength over time and through efforts to improve.

Strength Analysis

From the research completed of the areas of multiple intelligences and their influence on transformational leaders (Hoffman, Frost, 2006) and the development of charismatic quality of leaders (Murphy, Ensher, 2008), the observation is made that multiple intelligences contribute to greater social and emotional intelligence over time (Salopek, 2004). The study of multiple intelligences emerges as critical for defining educational programs (Rae, 2002) and personalizing instructional strategies (Vincent, Ross, 2001). Defining strengths within the Multiple Intelligence Survey as a prerequisite for educators has also been shown to increase educational effectiveness related to cultural diversity as well (Sturz, Kleiner, 2005).

From the foundation of research cited, my specific strengths in the areas of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences form a balanced foundation for counseling and guiding students to define their best possible educational strategies and goal fulfillment. These two strengths form the foundation also from an extroversion and introversion perspective as well. Interpersonal skills are essential in teaching a course; it could be argued that gregariousness is critical for an educators' success. Complimenting interpersonal strengths are intrapersonal ones that center on self-awareness and knowledge. Having this self-awareness and knowledge is crucial in designing educational programs that capitalize on my strengths as an educator on the one hand, and give students the opportunity to learn as much as possible on the other. Additional strengths of naturalist and logical intelligences are ideally applied in teaching science and technology-related courses that capitalize on these two strengths. In summary, the four strengths can form the foundation for greater social intelligence (Salopek, 2004) within the classroom, giving students the opportunity for more personalized instruction (Vincent, Ross, 2001) all contributing to their long-learn retention of the materials presented.

Weakness Analysis

From the Multiple Intelligence Survey the weakness of verbal and linguistic ability emerged. As this is a critical skill set for an educator, my plan to turn this into a strength is to first set short- and long-range goals for improvement. As with any effort to change oneself, it takes a continual and daily effort to improve. To begin with, I'll set the short-term objective of learning two new words a day and reading at least fifteen minutes every day. I plan to concentrate on nonfiction books aimed to assist me learn more vocabulary and also fiction books of authors I have enjoyed reading in the past. By balancing reading for pleasure with reading to improve my vocabulary, I hope to gradually improve in the short-term. I also plan to join a book club to be around people who have a passion for books and reading and see if I can identify with them and their passions for this area.

Long-term I plan to write more and focus on keeping a journal so I can see how my communications skills are improving. In addition, joining Toastmasters' and also taking public speaking courses will help me to better grasp verbal and linguistic connections to presenting in class. In short, I need to define a thorough self-improvement program in the area of verbal and linguistic skills. Most critically I need to figure out how to be passionate about getting stronger about verbal and linguistic communication skills so I can excel in serving and leading my students. There needs to be a long-term plan in place and I need to create it based on my unique needs, balanced with the unique reading interests and intellectual curiosities I have in specific areas of fiction and non-fiction. Having a journal and potentially writing a blog about teaching will give me a chance to see my progression over time.