Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Applications for Teaching and Learning in the Health Professions

Objective. The study identifies how MBTI personality indicator, can be used to determine student learning style. Background. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) concluded that predictable differences among people are caused by the differences in the use of the mind. When the mind is active you are involved in two main activities: perceiving-taking in information and judging- organizing information for use in decision-making. These two skills are also fundamental to the learning process and form the basis of health professions education. Methods. The COM Class of 2012 & 2013 took the online version of the MBTI during orientation. Individual student results were self reported during a meeting with classmates. The data was then aggregated per class. The results were compared to learning styles used in adult learning theory. Results. When type dimensions are compared to learning style, several themes emerge i.e., approaches to content, use of time management, categorizing information learned. Using themes you can identify how students approach new content and store it for retrieval. Understanding how you learn, maximizes the ability of students to develop more efficient study methods needed for success in health professions education. Conclusions. Using information gathered from MBTI, students can identify individual learning styles. By aggregating the data by course, the same information can use used by faculty to understand how the class best learns and how they can flex styles of teaching to meet learning needs of their students. Grants. None