PERSONALITY-SENSITIVE PEDAGOGIES: A MIXED METHODS ANALYSIS OF SMALL GROUP INTERACTIONS AMONG 9-10 YEAR OLDS

Abstract

There is considerable evidence that working collaboratively in small groups has learning benefits (Laal and Ghodsi, 2012) and that children’s participation in such activities mediates learning (Webb et al., 2014). Despite a growing interest in inclusion in education, personality has been overlooked as a possible source of exclusion. In this study we identified children who self-reported low levels of extraversion and/or high levels of neuroticism (tendency to worry) as personality traits and then observed them working in small group collaborative learning situations. Using social network analysis (SNA) as a way of understanding the group interactions, we employed a novel measure of degree centrality (influence) and coupled this with a qualitative analysis of the nature of the group interactions, establishing a genuinely mixed methods social network analysis (Froehlich et al., 2020). Findings suggest that low levels of extraversion and/or high levels of neuroticism can be, but are not always associated with lower levels of participation and that a range of other factors, notably the personality traits of the other children, affect participation. These findings could be used to suggest ways that teachers could employ more personality-sensitive pedagogies.