The Relationship of Stated Learning Preferences, Personality Type, and Career Background to Academic and Leadership Performance at the United States Air Command and Staff College

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of academic and leadership performance to three independent variables: stated learning preferences, Myers-Briggs personality type (MBTI), and career orientation. It also examined learning preferences by MBTI and investigated changes in learning preferences over a 7 month period in relation to MBTI, academic performance, and leadership performance. Statistical significance was examined at the .05 level for all studies. Subjects were active duty United States Air Force officers at the United States Air Command and Staff College (ACSC). After experiencing the ACSC curriculum for 7 months, 301 subjects were administered an ACSC learning preferences survey to determine preferences for the school's methods. Data for the first two indicators of the MBTI (E/I and N/S) and career orientation (aircrew or nonaircrew) were gathered. Regarding academic performance, a multiple regression combining all three independent variables was significant and showed that students not preferring ACSC's methods who have an IN MBTI and an aircrew status performed better. Individual variable analysis showed that only those with an aircrew background performed statistically significantly better in academics. Effect sizes for all GPA analyses weakly supported significant findings. For leadership, a multiple regression showed that performance for aircrew students not possessing the IS MBTI was significantly better. Individual variable analysis revealed that leadership performance for both the aircrew and MBTI independent variables was significant. For MBTI, the IS group performed significantly poorer than the ES and EN groups. Effect sizes for significant leadership performance finding were moderate to weak. MBTI was shown to be significantly related to learning preferences. The investigation's effect size moderately supported this conclusion. Follow up analysis indicated that N type students tended to prefer ACSC's methods while S types did not.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 11, 1999
Accession Number
ADA374148

Entities

People

  • Joseph Henderson Reynolds

Organizations

  • Auburn University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Audiovisual Aids
  • Business Administration
  • Cognition
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Doctrine
  • Electronic Mail
  • Information Processing
  • Instructors
  • Laptop Computers
  • Personality
  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Students
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Education

Readers

  • Organizational Psychology.
  • Psychometric Testing or Psychological Assessment.