Introverts in Schools

This week’s article summary is When Schools Overlook Introverts 

As the article points out that the percentage of introverts is somewhere from 33% to 50%.

I confess to begin an introvert. 

Like many other introverts who live and work in a world that rewards extroversion, I often feel that except in my house (where I can truly be my quiet self) I must play the role of a social, outgoing, gregarious colleague, teacher, neighbor, etc. 

I’m not complaining—after all, introverts to be successful must adapt to the expectations of the larger world. But I need my quiet, alone, private time too so  I can re-energize and perform (other introverts will appreciate my verb choice here) for others.

The article below is a reminder to teachers that not every activity has to be collaborative or require deep, heartfelt sharing and debriefing among students. (I still dread the end of education workshops and conferences when we have to go around the circle and share what we’ve learned, what we’ve felt, and how we’ve changed from the experience.)

I was one of those rare students who preferred and learned better from textbooks and lectures rather than group activities. While I learned content better when alone or listening, I certainly needed this to be complemented by group work where I learned how to work with others.

We need to be mindful of our introvert students in our classes who push well beyond their comfort zones every time they are asked to share their ‘feelings’ with others. Yes, introverts need to learn how to work with others, but we also need time at school to be by ourselves without someone assuming something’s wrong or we are unhappy.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Joe

————

When Susan Cain published Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking nearly four years ago, it was immediately met with acclaim. The book criticizes schools and other key institutions for primarily accommodating extroverts and such individuals’ “need for lots of stimulation.” It also sought to raise awareness about the personality type, particularly among those who’ve struggled to understand it.

It seems that such efforts have, for the most part, struggled to effect much change in the educational world. The way in which certain instructional trends—education buzzwords like “collaborative learning” and “project-based learning” and “flipped classrooms”—are applied often neglect the needs of introverts.

In fact, these trends could mean that classroom environments that embrace extroverted behavior—through dynamic and social learning activities—are being promoted now more than ever.

These can be appealing qualities in the classroom, but overemphasizing them can undermine the learning of students who are inward-thinking and easily drained by constant interactions with others.

Proponents of “active learning classrooms” write about “breaking students and faculty out of their comfort zones” like it’s a good thing, and teachers can conflate introversion into an inability to self-advocate.

American pedagogy has sought to overhaul the model of education and challenges students to forego passivity in favor of contribution and participation by having students overcome isolation in order to learn to write.

This growing emphasis in classroom on group projects and interactive arrangements can be challenging for introverted students who tend to perform better when they’re working independently and in more subdues environments. 

Comprising anywhere from 33% to 50% the population, introverts sometimes appear shy, depressed, or antisocial, when that’s not always the case.

As Susan Cain put it in her famous TED Talk, introverts simply “feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they’re in quieter, more low-key environments.”

Group activities can serve a purpose in the teaching of introverts. Common Core standards place far greater value on small-group discussion and student-led work than on any teacher-led instruction. And overall, this trend is a good thing.

Several recent studies offer the latest evidence that students who engage in cooperative learning tend to outperform those immersed in traditional learning approaches—namely lectures.

But cooperative learning doesn’t have to entail excessively social or over-stimulating mandates; it can easily involve quiet components that facilitate internal contemplation.

The ideal, of course, would be to establish arrangements that facilitate differentiated instruction for varying personality types, but this might be difficult in large classes with students of diverse levels of proficiency and motivation.

But I’m reminded of Sartre’s famous line, “Hell is other people,” when I see that Georgia College’s webpage dedicated to collaborative learning, which includes the topic sentence: “Together is how we do everything here at Georgia College. Learn. Work. Play. Live. Together.” Everything, that is, except quiet introspection, free of cost and distraction.