Ch. 3 - Personal and Social Development - Personal Development

Personality is the consistent behavior of a person. The nature vs. nurture argument applies here. A child's personality is influenced by heredity as well as the environment. Temperament on the other hand is a child's tendency to respond to and deal with the environment that is determined by genetics. The difference between to the two terms is that temperament is genetically determined. Some different temperaments are adaptability, persistence, adventurousness, outgoingness, shyness and much more. Children with a more outgoing temperament has a good chance to learn social skills and also form beneficial relationships. 

                              

(Andy Griffith has an excellent personality/temperament.  He is witty, keen, an exemplary policeman,, a good husband and he has other great qualities) 

A child's temperament indirectly affects academic success. If a child is social then it will be easier to obtain help from someone with a problem as they would probably have a successful relationship with the teacher and other children. There is no best temperament that makes a good student says the author. But my thought would be a student who is social in the right crowd, dedicated and motivated, has good ethics and philosophy and other qualities. Teachers should know that a child's temperament has a genetic origin and sometimes can't be helped. This does not say that bad behavior is accepted but teachers should have sympathy on them.

Ways to Accommodating Diverse Temperaments:

• For students with high energy they could be assigned chores such as erasing the chalk board, sharpening pencils, cleaning art supplies, etc.
• For shy students teachers need to be warm and attentive. They could do group activities that would put the shy student under the other students' wing.
• For students who have trouble adapting to new situations talk about them in advance by having an activity related to it.
• If the ruckus in the lunch room is too much to deal with try to offer your classroom as a place for them to eat. I don't know about doing this.
• Find ways to teach students self-control strategies. For a student who constantly interrupts the class or answers questions without letting others get a turn, have them count the number of times they do this. The student should learn to speak when it's important and maybe make a number that they should answer questions and have that be the limit.