1. Understanding Temperament
Module 5
Understanding Temperament

2. Mind in the Making: Review of key concepts
What makes learning memorable?
Essential connections, dance of being in and out of sync
Our role in helping children with state regulation

3. Module Four Review Sharing the Moving on and Doing More activities
Did engaging the children socially, emotionally and intellectually change how they learned or behaved? If so, how?
How did planning from the S-E-I perspective change your planning strategies?
Will this knowledge affect your teaching in the future? If so, how?

4. Ice Breaker

5. Learning Goals
Teachers will understand that effective teaching requires becoming increasingly aware of the role that temperament plays in child and adult behavior and learning. They will also become more aware of the importance of a goodness of fit with the children they teach.

6. Research shows…
Children are born with different temperaments and their growth and learning is shaped by an ongoing interaction between their genetic endowments and the experiences they have

7. Research shows…
Children develop best when adults can create a goodness of fit between themselves and children.

8. Research shows…
Children are more likely to cooperate and do something when adults:
Help children anticipate what is expected of them
Use positive language
Explain in brief and simple terms rather than, Because I say so
Give doable, not overwhelming tasks
Give limited and valid choices

9. Research shows…
Children are more likely to comply when asked not to do something when adults:
Select only a few issues that are important
Use what researchers call other-oriented discipline
Tell the children what they can do
Establish consequences
Teach problem-solving skills

10. Definitions
Temperament: the behavioral disposition influenced by both genetics and experience
Goodness of fit: when the child’s personality is a match to the adult’s ideal for the child

11. Major Tasks of Teaching Young Children
To understand your own temperament
To understand each child’s temperament
To seek a goodness of fit between you and each child

12. Outcomes Teachers will become better at:
being aware of their own temperaments;
being aware of children's unique temperaments;
being aware of how to create a good fit between themselves and children; and
helping children develop skills and abilities that develop their temperaments as assets.

13. Get Ready!

14. Did You Know? – Research Video
Dr. Jerome Kagan
Harvard University

15. What Do You Think?
Part 1:
Discuss numbers 2 and 3 on page 5 of the facilitator guide with your learning partner
Debrief with large group –
What was the difference whether you did or didn’t experience a good fit with a teacher?
How did the fit affect your learning and feelings about yourself?
How does your temperament impact how you teach?

16. What Do You Think? Part 2: Read Peter’s story in the Appendix 1
Discuss how the parent reacted with your learning partner.
How did the temperament of the teacher and the child affect the situation?
What would have made a difference?

17. What can you do?
Think about the list of children you wrote down in Module 2
What role did temperament play in who you remembered first and who you forgot?
Pick one or two of the children and figure out a way to create a better fit.

18. Tips
Take time to learn more about how your temperament affects the children you teach
Observe the children you teach
Help a child’s temperament become an asset

19. Quotes
The behavior you see in a child is like observing the sky without a telescope. You see just a little. You’re got to peer deeper.
--- Dr. Jerome Kagan
Please see additional quotes in your binders.

20. Journal Reflection OR

21. Moving On and Doing More
Use Chart 5.2 to describe the temperaments or styles of the children you teach.
Use the ideas you came up with for creating a better fit with each child
Make a list of what works best for you. Use this list when you get out of synch and need to get back in synch with a child.

22. Story
Leo the Late Bloomer
by Robert Kraus
Illustrated by Jose Aruego