I Know Why Seminary Students Bug Me

Yes, I realize the inconsistency of my headline. Hear me out. This weekend, I've been learning about Athony Gregorc's learning styles, thanks to some research that Becky has been doing for her classes. I am most definitely an abstract sequential learner. I'm a big fan of research and working independently, and I like to be analytical and work to perfect my ideas while remaining within established forms and modes of operation. I like to question things, and I have a strong desire to figure things out for myself. (I also possess a bit of the concrete random learning style, particularly with regard to competition, self-direction, and my need to come up with answers that are different from the status quo.)

Conversely, I have observed that most of my seminary classmates (and, I think, professors) are either concrete sequential or abstract random learners. If you read the brief definitions that I'm linking to, you'll see that their way of processing ideas is quite unlike mine. It's not that any of us are necessarily better or worse intellectually, but our journeys from idea to idea are dramatically different.

This was never an issue in my English or music classes during undergrad because most of us possessed a similar learning style. I imagine that people of certain learning styles and modes of thinking are (generally) attracted to certain fields of study. And while I'm enjoying the stuff I'm learning, I'm in a field of study that I'm not particularly attracted to, which perhaps explains why my learning style/mindset is often a bit out of place. Even though I like what I'm learning (when I actually feel like I'm learning something).

What things bug me the most in my classes? People who are afraid to question ideas. People who are afraid to think outside the box. People who take an authoritative voice as the giver of absolute truth. Multiple-choice tests in which terms are not clearly defined. Multiple-choice tests in which statements are vague or in which the answer choices don't adequately answer the question. True/false questions--period. The idea that you can just memorize a list of stuff and think that you've "learned" something. People who think that a question can have only one right answer. Not feeling free to express what I am learning.

And if you look at the list in the previous paragraph, you'll see that all of these relate back to my learning style. Hmm. Is this why so many of my classmates drive me nuts? Even the ones I get along with and enjoy on a personal basis? Because seriously, there are very few people who, in the context of my classes, don't make me want to just throw up my hands in the air and say, "To @#$% with this program!"

I wonder if I irritate concrete sequential or abstract random people in the same way that they irritate me....