The Enneagram Intelligences: Understanding Personality for Effective Teaching and Learning - Softcover

Levine, Janet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0897895622 ISBN 13: 9780897895620

Publisher: Praeger, 1999

Synopsis

First taught in the United States in 1971, the Enneagram is now used in counseling settings, corporations, university classrooms (including Stanford Business School) and other educational institutions. The Enneagram system is a model of human development which describes nine patterns of personality. Each type is distinct with its own point of view and focus of attention based on nine psychological strategies. Janet Levine, a long-term educator, and with many years experience using the model, has through research and refinement, pioneered an application for educators and students in their quest to facilitate teaching and learning. This is an in-depth description of the system, and a practical guide.

The Enneagram Intelligences pioneers a new field, a study of the impact of personality in education on both teaching and learning styles, and other areas of institutions―for instance, the faculty roles and rewards debate. The Enneagram model describes with great accuracy why we behave the way we do. The book is a practical guide to understanding personality and applying that knowledge in all educational dynamics. Through the words and observations of educators, we gain insight into the Enneagram. We can see and understand the 360 degrees of human possibility, and are no longer limited to our forty degree take on reality. This liberates us into a new understanding of ourselves and others, a new way of perceiving differences.

Levine's book does for personality and teaching and learning styles what other great innovations such as those of A.S. Neill, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, John Dewey, Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs, and Ernest Boyer have done for education in general: move forward the frontier of understanding, shift the paradigm, change the perceptual lens.

About this title

Book Description

Pioneers a study of the impact of personality on education in both teaching and learning styles, and other areas of institutional life such as the faculty roles and rewards debate.

From the Author

Hello Readers -- I am a reader myself, and I know it helps me when I have an idea what a book is about. What follows is an excerpt from the Preface of The Enneagram Intelligences, and I hope it is helpful to you.

"This book is the result of many years of my own work in the classroom using the Enneagram model. Since 1994, I have had my experiences, insights, and reflections verified and expanded by many other educators (and students) who have attended the workshops I have led around the country and internationally, on what I call "the Enneagram edge in education." What are some conclusions?

First, teaching is an inexact profession that is often measured by an intuitive feel on the part of the educator for what we sometimes call the "chemistry" between ourselves and a group of students, at whatever level education is taking place. By good "chemistry" we understand that the learning dynamic is a positive and rewarding experience. Bad "chemistry" implies the opposite. Many teachers develop a range of skills and interventions to help that good "chemistry" manifest itself. On an instinctive level they deploy their understanding of how their personality impacts others. Most often it is a shot in the dark. Inherently every educator knows how invaluable precise understanding of the patterns of personality behaviors is to them. The descriptive accuracy of the Enneagram model provides us with exact information on personality--our own, and the other possibilities contained in the range of human behavior. The power of the model is enhanced by its predictive ability. The Enneagram system explains where we each shift under conditions of stress and security. In pinpointing these qualities, among much else, the book provides the know-how for educators to become true facilitators. It is filled with examples by educators (for educators) on how to understand, respect, connect with, motivate, and work most productively with each student (and colleague).

Second, using the Enneagram model provides a new lens for the 21st century through which to view diversity and difference. The Enneagram model lies at so essential a level of human individuality that the Enneagram types transcend race, ethnicity, gender, age, and socioeconomic status. This book goes beyond current theories of personality, multiple intelligences, learning styles, teaching styles. It takes their conceptual underpinnings to an entirely new level, deeper and more applicable to the whole person than the MBTI, or any of the other learning-style schemas and inventories. It is pioneering work of the order of A. S. Neill, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, John Dewey, Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs, and Ernest Boyer.

Third, we should be placing greater emphasis on educators and teaching styles. Again and again, as I go around the country conducting workshops, I he\000\000ar from teachers at all levels that accurately understanding their own teaching style is a vital, important missing piece. There is receptivity among educators to find out how they teach. The Enneagram offers a different perspective on the teaching/learning continuum--a new perceptual lens.

The Enneagram edge pioneers a study of the impact of personality on education. This book is a practical guide to understanding and applying that knowledge in all educational dynamics.

I know from my own experience that this work is sometimes received with puzzlement. On the most basic level the Enneagram is a personality typology describing nine strategies, or worldviews. The idea of "typologies" raises many red flags, for many reasons, for most people (myself included). Yet, this is not a reductivist system, rather the opposite. As soon as people are exposed to an explanation of the model, and they begin to see the intricacies and accuracy of the system, many are turned on to the possibilities it holds. In the introduction to the book I write that when I first came across the Enneagram system I saw that education and the Enneagram belonged together. I still do, and more so than ever as I see so many other educators becoming aware of, and beneficially using the power of, understanding personality. It is my belief that no educator after having encountered the system can approach teaching the same way again."

Edition details

• Publisher: Praeger
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0897895622
• ISBN 13: 9780897895620
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320