Tailoring the education system to individuals does tend to make us think about learning styles even though there are huge arguments about just what these are, how they can be assessed and what the outcome of assessment can be used for to shape the learning experience in our schools.
Personality profiling is also thought by some to be the key to understanding individual needs or to help individuals understand more about the way they learn.
There are a number of profiling tools that have been developed for exploring the various characteristics of individuals and how these may inform the sort of learning experience they need. The debate will go on about their value and use in terms of the learning process. What is clear is that their use does raise the profile of the different ways people interact or will respond to differing learning situations. They are useful to the teacher in that they help to build a profile of the learner and flag up difference that need to be catered for. They are useful to the learner in that they encourage learners to reflect on the way in which they go about learning.
Among the raft of online assessments are YourPreferences, which is based on the work of Carl Jung on Personality profiling, VARK, which has been developed by Neil Fleming and is about the way individuals like to access information and finally the ubiquitous Multiple intelligences theory developed by Howard Gardener. You can try these tools out and see what it tells you about yourself or your students.
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