Personality tests: Their accuracy and validity

At my the last institute day I found interesting how the members of the math department interacted with each other. During one activity the presenter asked us to interact with someone we normally have very little contact with. As I looked around I noticed some teachers searched out people that worked at a different campus and had little contact with. There were others, including myself, that stayed in our comfort zone. This had me thinking about how our personality traits impact our participation in learning communities. This experience led me to take the following personality tests:16 Personalities, Personality Type Indicator, and Fivethirtyeight.

Results

All three personality test indicated that I am openminded, flexible, and have an adaptable approach to life. Even thought an introvert, when I get comfortable I make a good friend. The test suggest I am warm, friendly, caring, and able to pickup on unspoken feelings. After socializing with others I need alone time to recharge. My adventurous personality and preference to live day by day while being able to adapt to circumstances make me unlikely to suffer from stress and have very little anxiety. Career paths suggested for my personality type are detective, computer programmer, engineer, athlete, entrepreneur, mechanic, carpenter, or professor. 

Accuracy

I found the results to be highly accurate. I have colleagues that like planning weeks and months ahead. They are very proud of being able to plan so far ahead and be "ready". In contrast, I prefer to adapt my lessons class to class and day to day. I do not like the feeling of being limited and having to follow a predetermined plan. There have been days I sit at my desk after school and plan an activity for the next day and then the following morning I have already modified it or completely replaced it. This matches my time as a dj. I liked to experiment with new beats, mix songs that were unexpected, and adapted to how the crowd reacted. I follow the same mentality as a teacher. I react to my students interests and understanding. 

Some traits that the test got wrong are that I struggle with deadlines, have a hard time to focus in school, and that I am religious. With regards to deadlines, I do tend to submit work right up to the deadline and arrive at work 5 minutes before my scheduled time. Despite that, I prioritize my responsibilities and take care of very single one by the time it is due. I rarely am late and I never miss a deadline. 

Validity

I have never been a big believer in the validity of these tests. The first reason is that we are sometimes afraid of the truth. Thus, we may answer in a way that will give us the result we are looking for. A second reason is that some of the questions can be interpreted differently. At times I found myself asking myself, "if I respond like this, then it means this". That resulted in me changing some of my answers. 

In this case, I found the test results to be valid. Mainly because I did not rely on a single test, instead I completed three. Second, I imagined that no one would see the results other than myself. The mind games worked. The results were valid. 

Conclusion: 

Our personality traits can influence how we participate in a learning community. My form of participating might not match another persons, yet that does not mean I am not engaged or actively learning.