STLHE 2016 SAPES

This workshop focuses on learner-centered teaching practices. The facilitators will present their research on the relationship between the personalities of incoming college students, choice of college program, and success in that program. This research tracked nearly 900 students enrolled in 26 different 2-year college programs along 10 different personality dimensions, such as boredom proneness, agreeableness, social deviance, and conscientiousness. Results demonstrate large and highly statistically significant personality differences between learners in different programs: Each program seems to have its own unique “personality.” We will explore the implications of these findings for instructional design: How can this information be used to tailor the learner experience and improve learner success on a program by program level? At the end of the workshop, participants will take away a list of both their own and group-generated ideas about how to create a program-specific best-fit between learner personalities and instructional techniques in their own institutions.