Foundations Newsletter

Bridging the Gap: Teaching Introverted and Extroverted Students

By Lark S. Escobar

In any given classroom, teachers may have as many as 50% of their students who have introverted personalities (Cain, 2008). It is all too easy to cater to one set of learning needs unintentionally. In order to bridge the gap from introverted learners, it is important to maintain a balance within the lesson to ensure that learners are not being systemically marginalized.

Striking the balance between the very different learner needs of introverts and extroverts is both an art and a science. Teaching classes with more than 10 students is automatically more conducive to meeting the needs of extroverted learners, often at the expense of introverted learners’ needs.

Contrasting Personality Types & Learning Styles

Tips for Teaching Introverts

1. Give students opportunities to think deeply (don’t move on while they are thinking of an answer).
2. Give students regular opportunities to work individually.
3. Make sure that there is some portion of each lesson that is a quieter time. Introverted learners will have a lower threshold for being able to engage with peers in the target language just like they will in their first language.
4. Incorporate the use of social media sites to engage introverts and alleviate the pressure to engage in extroverted outputs. Examples of this include Twitter and Instagram.
5. Be careful to not reward extroverted behaviors only- thus marginalizing the introverted learners.
6. Praise introverted participation and contribution in ways that validate their personality type (be careful to avoid praising them only when they demonstrate extroverted behaviors).
7. Provide learners formal opportunities to reflect on their learning in writing.
8. Ensure learners know they can email you questions, or request one-on-one appointments.

Tips for Teaching Extroverts

1. Make sure learners have an opportunity to share their opinions in diverse ways.
2. Learning-by-doing projects and challenge-based learning tasks help the learners discover and engage.
3. Help extroverts be sensitive to introverted learner needs, as they may not understand that not everyone can function in a noisy learning environment. Praise considerate behaviors.
4. Give rewards for task completion (pencils, pens, stickers, etc.).
5. Provide additional scaffolding for developing planning skills and cultivation of deeper thinking.
6. Give opportunities to learners to socialize before they face a task that requires concentration.

While these personality types help us understand learning needs and how to avoid   some learners, it is important to keep in mind that they are not absolute. In other words, these types are a continuum and people can shift around on that continuum depending on the context, day, their age, and life events. Gaining insight into the dynamics of learner needs creates a platform for bridging this gap in our classrooms.