From the profile of an INTP, or “Logician.” Links to the test are in the post below.
Form and Function First
Here is the Google Form you have been formally assigned:
This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive self-assessment. I’m sure there are interesting data and questions left out. This is the start of mapping as much of your academic self as we can after the first month of the year. First, review the key concepts below, familiarize yourself with the Google Form above, and then read the complete instructions for each section. You’ll need to take a bunch of tests before starting to fill out the form, so I’d strongly suggests creating a folder for your saved results.
Key Concept: Data Tell a Story | All data tell us something, if we’re willing to look hard at our own assumptions and heuristics. Treat every number, whether it is generated for you or by you, as a starting point. Treat every description as a part of an ongoing and much larger story.
Key Concept: the Forer Effect | Read about this concept here, or look for the embedded article later in this post. Always remember that no online test — and not too many off-line tests — should be treated as absolutely accurate. Your role is to become, as David McRaney says, “capable psychonauts who think about thinking, about states of mind, about set and setting.”
You Are Not So Smart – Book Trailer – Procrastination
Key Skill: Critical Thinking and Metacognition in Writing | For each set of data you create this week, write a paragraph of analysis that tries to find some insight. You must do this. The written word is how we freeze our thinking and refine our beliefs.
Key Skill: Organization + Autodidacticism | You can’t rush through these, and you’ll need to plan out ahead of time what needs attention. This is not your only assignment for the next week. It will be easier to focus when the work is about you, so the real danger is forgetting what else you need to prioritize.
You are recording these data in the Google Form at the top of this post, which is also available here or attached to the assignment on Google Classroom. Each of the sections below explains what you will enter on the form, with context or instructions as necessary. Read carefully.
Again, the bolded and all-caps words in each section are what appear on the Google Form. You must be organized here to keep it straight, which is the point: You learn what you do.
Form Data #1: ACADEMIC RESOURCES
COUNSELOR | This is one of the most important resources you have — the person who can help you with courses, college, and a lot of the existential and emotional havoc that comes from spending half of your day in a high school. For some of you, this is known; for others, it will be the first time you’ve looked up who this is. Select the appropriate last name.
LAST YEAR’S ENGLISH TEACHER | There are a number of reasons for us to reach out to the teacher you had last year, especially as we look at your growth as a writer over time. This person spent a long time with you. Select the appropriate last name.
Form Data #2: GPA DATA
OVERALL | Seems odd to ask for this in a grade-abated course, right? The reason, as the top of this post also argues, is that all data reveal something, and GPA is no different. At the very least, it will open up a discussion of Alfie Kohn’s “Case Against Grades” (available here) or Jerry Jesness’ “Floating Standard” (online here), which are seminal texts for any group trying to change how we learn1. Select the approximate number. If you have your weighted average, use that.
LAST YEAR’S ELA | This tells us something about your work in the Humanities. The score probably correlates to your ability, but it also reflects your interest level, maturity, personal life, etc. — although it does not tell the whole story, as you know. Putting the number in context is critical.
Form Data #3: MYERS-BRIGGS
This is the first test you’ll take, and we should talk about what that means. A personality test, especially one as steeped in good research as this one, might be useful, but the Forer effect is a real and powerful phenomenon:
The idea is not that a personality test is inaccurate or useless. It’s that you must be metacognitively vigilant about anything a test like this tells you, especially when your goal is self-improvement2. Approach this Myers-Briggs diagnostic, the IPIP-NEO diagnostic below, and any other test you happen upon with the same understanding: It’s always more important to use the ideas to organize your self-analysis. Read everything the site presents to you as context, keep that Forer effect in mind, and do a lot of reflective writing.
The test:
TYPE | Once you have it, select the profile shorthand (from this list) in the Google Form.
Form Data #3: MULTIPLE-INTELLIGENCE SELF-ASSESSMENT (SPIDER GRAPH)
Now we move into a pair of self-assessments. You won’t take a test to generate these numbers; instead, you’ll have to look at yourself as honestly and accurately as you can.
First, though: This is a direct test of your ability to be autodidactic, specifically your ability to research concepts enough to be able to work with them. The concepts are below. There are no hyperlinks this time, because you need to practice your own Google skills.
- Spider graphs, also known as radar graphs or wheel graphs | You need to create your own spider graphs with these data. Visualizing this sort of self-assessment has serious efficacy in analysis.
- The theory of multiple intelligences, as devised by Howard Gardner | These are the categories listed below. You need a working understanding of them to self-assess.
For these categories, use the 0-9 scale as indicated by the options on the Google Form. This is a self-assessment, which means you are acting, once again, as a “capable psychonaut.” Only honesty helps.
Note: The categories are not official, and there are other lists out there. Our list respects Howard Gardner’s version3.
THE ARTS | I’ve grouped these together, because they are most often associated with the arts. You’ll learn more through your own research. Fill out the form by ranking yourself from 0-9.
- MUSICAL
- SPATIAL
TRADITIONAL | These two are most often associated with traditional schooling, and with our traditional definition of intelligence. Again, you’ll learn more through your own research. Fill out the form by ranking yourself from 0-9.
- VERBAL
- LOGICAL
SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL | Again, the grouping is mine, because it helps to chunk information as we self-assess. These two intelligences contribute most to your social and emotional learning. Fill out the form by ranking yourself from 0-9.
- INTERPERSONAL
- INTRAPERSONAL
OTHER | And here you have the “other” category, which will make sense when you research what each one means. Fill out the form by ranking yourself from 0-9.
- BODILY
- NATURAL
- SPIRITUAL
- TEACHING
Form Data #4: UNIVERSAL SKILLS & TRAITS (SPIDER GRAPH)
This section is a direct test of your ability to internalize important information — in this case, the set of universal skills and traits that are trained and assessed in this course. Like the above section, there are no hyperlinks in the main text. You have dozens of ways to refresh your understanding of:
- the eight pairs of universal skills/traits and how they interact; and
- how those skills/traits lead to a grade abatement profile.
For these categories, use the 0-9 scale as indicated by the options on the Google Form. This is a self-assessment, which means you are acting, once again, as a “capable psychonaut.” Only honesty helps.
Note: There are sixteen distinct skills or traits, but they form discrete pairs because of how they interact with each other. Focus on the instructional materials you’ve been given all year.
- Collegiality ⇆ Empathy
- Integrity + Character
- Close Reading ⟹ Internalization
- Critical Thinking ⟹ Metacognition
- Effective Communication ⟹ Writing
- Amenability ⇆ Self-Awareness
- Assiduousness ⇆ Self-Efficacy
- Organization ⟹ Autodidacticism
Ask questions about any of these particular elements below. Treat the comment section of this post as another resource for organization, researching, and understanding what you must do to make sense of all these data.
That’s us, by the way. We are trying to change how we learn. It’s as someone said about dreaming big: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars [where your skin will inflate and your lungs will explode].” ↩
I have long thought of myself as an INTJ, for instance, but I see more and more of myself in the description of an INTP these days. Without taking the test again, I can read through the differences and apply that knowledge to myself. I believe those differences are crucial to my development as a teacher, which gives me a starting point for meaningful metacognitive discussion and writing. ↩
See his interview here for more. You can get to this interview, by the way, through a careful reading of the Wikipedia page on multiple intelligences. It also quotes a useful definition of intelligence, according to Gardner: “a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture.” Unpacking that sentence is an excellent exercise in close reading, and it would help you make sense of this self-assessment. Note, too, that this footnote is helping you with the research component. As always, these posts are meant to help. ↩