The INTP Personality Type and Learning Styles

People with different Myers-Briggs® Personality Types (MBTI® Personality Types) often learn in vastly different ways—from how they stay motivated, to their preferred classroom organization, to their relationships with their peers and instructors. Using insights about your MBTI® Type to streamline your learning experience can help you retain more information faster, and be able to apply it more effectively than ever before. This post focuses on The Introverted-Intuitive-thinking- Perceiving personality type or INTP.

INTPs are “Analyzers” according to Hirsh and Hirsh (2007). They critically evaluate learning situations, and determine what is worth learning and why. Without being able to clearly connect content to a purpose, INTPs quickly lose motivation—why learn something if it’s not practical? For these reasons, INTPs tend to gravitate towards fields in the natural sciences and engineering, where they can apply information readily to the real world and reap relatively immediate benefits.

Classrooms are notoriously removed from the “real world,” so INTPs tend to dislike them. They find it difficult to stay motivated to learn abstract information in a structured format, and instead prefer having the flexibility to learn independently, where they can explore applications on their own time. As a result, they benefit greatly from being given supplementary resources that they can explore at their own leisure and tend to have a dispreference for group work. While INTPs understand that working with others can have certain benefits, especially in a well-focused group collaborating on a concrete, applied task, they lose motivation quickly when they are working with others for the sake of building relationships, or because others may need their help. Instead, they prefer activities in which they can solve new or unusual problems, where they can experiment, and where they can apply the content they learned to achieve specific goals.

Learn about The MBTI® INTP Personality Type’s Learning Style. Get tips and Strategies on how to learn best as an INTP and best function as an INTP.

When it comes to instructors, INTPs value competence and knowledge above all. In the rare case that they enjoy lecture-style instruction, INTPs need a clear, logically-organized presentation in which information is connected to what comes before and after, and where it has clear implications or applications in the real world. Time management and efficiency is very important to INTPs, and they quickly lose respect for instructors—and peers—who lose focus or get off-task. In the same way, they value and appreciate specific feedback focusing on precise strategies they can use to improve themselves. Overly general or positive feedback is often dismissed as useless. Also, because of their analytical, reflective nature, INTPs often benefit from scaffolded self-directed feedback, for instance a rubric or checklist that allows them to quickly evaluate their own work.

INTPs should make an effort to incorporate these considerations into their learning environments, and instructors should be conscientious of learning styles when designing their classes and lessons. Try to build independent processing time into your study sessions, even if your instructor does not explicitly require it. With a little insight of your MBTI® Personality Type you’ll be well on your way to faster, more effective learning!

Formulate a career path that you’ll enjoy for years to come with the help of the Strong Interest Inventory test below:

Discover occupations that work with what you like and enjoy, and learn how your personality influences your mental processes and preferences with the combination test below:

Learn More About the MBTI INTP Personality Type

• Explore our MBTI INTP Personality Type Page

Explore Our Other INTP Blog Pages:

• Myers-Briggs test INTP Personality Type and Innovation Styles Blog
• Myers-Briggs test INTP Personality Type and Project Management Blog
• Myers-Briggs test INTP Personality Type and Emotional Intelligence Blog
• Myers-Briggs test INTP Personality Type and Leadership Styles Blog
• Myers-Briggs test INTP Personality Type and Communication Styles Blog
• Myers-Briggs test INTP Personality Type and Decision-Making Blog

INTP Careers:

Click on one of these corresponding popular INTP Careers for detailed information including Career Stats, Income Stats, Daily Tasks and Required Education: Actuary/Risk Professional, Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators, Architectural Drafters, Archivists, Art Directors, Food Science Technician, Geographer, Geoscientist, Librarian, Network and Computer Systems Administrators

Click on a link below to read more about different MBTI Personality Types

Reference

Introduction To Type and Learning. (Dunning, D, 2008. CPP)