This month CETL hosted a book talk on the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. They also posed several interesting questions to the faculty.

1. Many of us include “participation” as part of a student’s grade, at which an extrovert usually excels. Can we “reframe” participation in a way that also allows an introvert to excel? How could we do that? What would it look like?
2. Are group assignments “fair” to introverts? Why or why not? How do you balance individual versus group work?
3. According to Cain, “Introverts need different kinds of instruction than extroverts.” What do you think of the “guidelines” to teachers found on pages 255-256?
4. What did you think of Cain’s new version of groupthink? Is your own experience supported by the evidence that creativity and productivity is fostered by more time alone than working in groups? Is there a way to structure work to gain the benefits of both?

The ideas put forward by Susan Cain are a timely for consideration as we seek to develop new collaborative computing spaces on campus.

1. How can we build new spaces for introverts?
2. How should we design spaces to accommodate the broad range of work/study styles and needs?
3. What elements contribute to learning spaces for introverts (i.e. lighting – amount, hue, lamp vs. natural; furniture – chair, desk; sound – white noise, music; visual surroundings – view, colors, artwork)?

If you are interested in an abbreviated version of Susan Cain’s thoughts, see her TED presentation titled “The power of introverts”.