From: RHODA%MUNIN@NORWICH.BITNET (Rhoda Carroll, Vermont College,
              Montpelier)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Subject: O Happy State
Date: 11 Oct 92 19:33:00 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
X-VMS-To: BITNET::"mbu-l@ttuvm1"

Karen, your "I don't even know how to study this" comment (re. the change
in classroom environment coincident with CAI) hit home with me even more
than your observations generally do (and they generally DO!). Margaret
Daisley's observations (Oct. 11) seem to me in to be in the same vein --
what IS is about the breaking up of old forms that happens faster when
computers figure into the mix?

You remember what Rae and I were looking at at C&W 7 in Biloxi --the
role of temperament in the CAI classroom expecially as revealed by patterns
of e-mail use.  That research came directly out of the same experience
you reported: something *happens* and although we resonate to it
intuitively, we have some trouble articulating the change in objective
scientific terms.  (Whatever those really are: and anyone who is
sure of what they are, please post a definition I can live with).

I'm still moving forward toward trying to understand what happens
when I introduce temperament analysis and attitude measurement
into a first-year comp course and then try to track the development
of students' metacognition by studing some aspects of their e-mail.

While all that's going on, I'm seeing something of what I think
Margaret Daisley sees -- the old forms of classroom interaction,
which used to be dominated by students' self-adopted ritualized
behaviors ("the talker," "the clown," etc.) *can* be upended with
the help of computers.  We don't have ENFI or anything like it
here yet, but I have the MBTI online and I give students some
handouts about their results.

What this means, among many other things, is that I can take
the results of a computer-given test and use them directly
in the classroom in at least two ways that seem relevant to the
current discussion.  One is that I can use MBTI stuff right in essay
assignments; two weeks ago was "Narrae a story from your childhood
or adolescence that your think exemplifies some aspect of your
MBTI."  Most students were able to take a metacognitive view --
they could see themselves thinking, acting, making decisions
out of some natural aspect of temperament.

And second, in the ritualized old class discussions, either all-group
or small-group, I can choose to ask some students to take on or play roles
other than their own tried-and-true habits of discourse.  Because we
have the common language of the MBTI, I can say things like "You're
great at being a discussion leader, as most ESTP's are, but you've got
a couple of intuitive introverts in your group, so what can
we do to enhance their participation?"

The *neutrality* of the MBTI helps me so much -- I can objectify
and distance all sorts of behaviors and engage students' basic
desires for cooperation in ways that really are *thrilling.*
Like you, I still wonder how to "study" it, but I'm happy
looking and trying.

Sorry for this subjective enthusiasm -- it's probably a second
midlife crisis (not uncommon, I hear, for INFJ's).

Rhoda Carroll
* Rhoda Carroll * Vermont College of Norwich University * Rhoda@Norwich.Bitnet