Therefore, INFPs, if you have taught or are currently teaching, how would you describe your style?
Ofugur, is your prof disorganized or organized generally? Does he have notes that he refers to frequently, or is he more free form? Can you usually follow the logic of the class progression? How does he present the material (e.g., powerpoint, lecture, discussion, circle discussion)? I'm interested in knowing if there's a correlation between NF personality preference and a penchant for more radical pedagogy (making the students and the instructor equal in terms of power and so forth).
I only taught a single semester at a local community college, so I didn't really get a chance to learn from my 'rookie errors', but my thoughts...
First, I taught "Introduction to C", which is a computer programming class, so I didn't go into the touchy-feely. However, I was at my best when we would get slightly off topic into things that were still computer related, but less detailed-oriented and more big-picture. Oftentimes when we'd get off track I'd lose myself in the conversation with the class and manage to slip in some humor, and during those times I could feel the energy and tell I had their attention. However, I'm pretty good at intuitively sensing the passing of time, so I'd snap out of it and go back to the lecture, killing the energy and momentum I had just generated.
I think the material was inherently dry (oohh... memory allocation, incrementing FOR loops, sorting arrays.. RIVETING), but I tried my best to explain things in simple terms initially, and build upon them to the more complicated material. To help I often created visual illustrations and used metaphors, with perhaps even overdoing the metaphors. I remember using an egg carton to help explain a two dimensional array, and if I had thought of it I would have hard boiled my eggs and 'accidently' dropped one near a students desk for a bit of a joke.
Overall I was very proud of my lectures, and considered it my strength.
On the minus side, I wasn't really a good lecturer. I felt nervous and tense, and the material inherently doesn't play to my emotional passions, so I was a bit 'off'. Some of that would have gone away with experience, but I didn't really outgrow it during the semester. I preferred MS Power Point (with lecture specific notes on the bottom) and used the chalk board to explain more dynamic things like linked lists, but I pretty much stuck to my lecture as my life line. It didn't help that I didn't write and prep my lecture until the day before, not giving me a chance to practice it. Sadly, that also caused my overall semester structure to be a bit sloppy... something I would correct if I ever taught again.
I was generally pretty lax in rules that other teachers freak out about. I took attendance, but was up front with my class that they are adults and attendance won't directly affect their grades, but COULD play a role in leniency for border line cases at the end of the semester. Turns out, it did. I had two students get a 59% (failing), one of whom I spent alot of time with, did all their homework, and attended all of the class, and another that only showed up for the tests. I passed one and failed the other. The one that failed asked if there was anything that he could do, after hearing about his final grade, and told him no, his grade stands. I also gathered my paper work together to make my case if he were to try and argue it. (Felt terrible about the whole thing afterward, too.)
Wow, that grew long. I'll end by saying that I was always open to my students and would go above and beyond to help them with any issues they had. While my end of semester evals hit me hard when it came to lectures, I received top of the line scores for responsiveness and helpfulness.
