Most people enjoy getting some feedback on their inner “nature”.. some better idea of who they are in different contexts.
Surely this is why horoscopes are so popular, as well as identity quizzes (huge on Facebook – eg “Which Buffy character are you?“). A symptom of our Western cultural heritage where self-knowledge is not explicitly taught, leaving people hungry for any basic clues to who they might be.
For any kind of structured learning, self-knowledge can be vital to your effectiveness. i know that i learn best when i have multiple sources of information – mainly visual, with written text (and audio an optional extra). i know that i need to build up a visual mind-map to really cover the holistic ground, and that i must create a structured written text if i want to fully understand the details.
Howard just sent around a quiz for determining your “Creativity Brain Balance”.. and i am pleased to report that i am 52% right-brained. That means that the creative and holistic aspects of my mental workings are only slightly more prevalent than the structured and logical bits. i’d call that very close to balanced. Woohoo.
Plus, the learning styles online test gave me a fairly balanced view across multiple intelligences too (visual, spatial, social etc):
Is this really me, or does it show that i know how to manipulate a test?
And do quizzes that cover learning styles and strategies really give you more insight than your average astrological reading?
Other self-test sites include:
- The NCSU learning styles questionnaire,
- Learning styles online dot com (RTFP: you must register on completion to get your results)
- Creativity Brain Balance Test
- Article about Facebook quizzes: “The good, the bad.. and the one that told me i’m Xander” from entertainment weekly.
i wonder how many teachers use this kind of tool with their learners at the start of a course..?
At PRACE, Tina created a learning strategies booklet for all the English as a second language teachers to use with their students.. because learning strategies are a required component of the ESL Frameworks.