The Find My Spark™ College Survey is based on the research of Claire Law, a Certified Educational Planner and author of Find the Perfect College for You. Students take this psychology-based survey to match their personality and learning style with a College Style.
Note: If a student already knows their Find My Spark results, they can enter those into the student profile without having to take the survey. If the survey has been completed, the result will automatically populate the student profile.
College Styles are used in GuidedSearch! How are the College Style tags determined for the FMS survey?
Many of the colleges in the GuidedPath database are tagged with a College Style based on Claire Law's research of school values and mission statements and also her vast personal experience and visits. Claire has also tagged the 100 most popular colleges in the GuidedPath database. A total of over 600 colleges have a College Style tag. The power of GuidedPath is that you can match your student's College Style with the list of tagged colleges that fit their needs.
How does Find My Spark Compare to Do What You Are? Can the two be used together?
Both instruments use the Myers Briggs model, with an outcome defined by the same personality type indicators, E/I, S/N, F/T, J/P.
The main difference between the two is Do What You Are is a full assessment; Find My Spark is a survey. Find My Spark is a shorter, less in depth personality assessment than Do What You Are. You can use Find My Spark to give students a starting point for self reflection and to help with identifying their college style. Using the Find My Spark and Do What You Are are not mutually exclusive.
The descriptions of the type indicators are based on the Myer Briggs model/theory, so students would actually have an enhanced experience with Do What You Are and the descriptions in Find My Spark. You could give students both surveys, or choose one or the other.
Why isn't the introvert and extravert breakpoint on FMS at 50%
This was per the design of the author, Claire Law, to adjust for the tendency of students to be extraverted, or at least the answer the questions as extroverts would. She found that more in this close area around 50%, the students tended to be more natural introverts than extroverts. However, anywhere in this middle range can be considered a borderline case.
Is FMS appropriate for students with Learning Differences?
"Find My Spark” is a questionnaire that Claire designed for “regular” students (if any exist since they’re all pretty different) and it’s not meant to measure learning differences or learning disabilities, intelligence, maturity, “normalcy”, etc. etc. Students with learning disabilities can take it –as long as they understand the questions – and the consultant uses the questionnaire to get to know the student better. It would be better if you would give FMS to this student orally. This would enable you to open up a dialogue and use FMS as a vehicle to open up areas where the student may shine or experience difficulties.
Find My Spark (FMP) is not a diagnostic tool. It’s designed to help a student self-reflect on how he/she likes to learn – and in this regard, it does not matter if a student has learning disabilities or not – you would use the questions to figure out what study habits the student keeps, for example, and then discuss how well those habits serve the student. The consultant needs to use her experience as she advises the student. The results, the 4 adjectives (Intuitive or Sensing, Thinking or Feeling) are not exactly like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator preferences. FMS is not set in stone. FMS needs to be verified by consultants for optimum assessment of the student. Students may/may not understand how their personality preferences affect how they like to take in information – not in a cognitive sense like when measuring IQ – which FMS or MBTI or STRONG absolutely do not do – but how their personality preferences help in learning say, a subject like physics. The intuitive feeler prefers to learn it in a holistic, conceptual way that can help the world. An analytical student with a well-developed preference for Thinking will likely enjoy the formulaic, mathematical way in which Physics can be taught. The results on FMS need to be explained to the student, validated from hearing the student’s feedback and tempered by the consultant’s overall knowledge of who is the student. It would be a breach of protocol to assume that any assessment, especially FMS, could be used by everyone in the population. In conclusion, if you have students with learning disabilities (e.g. slow processing, difficulty in reading) as long as you can verify it in person so that you can make sure the student comprehends the questions. You will discover how they approach learning and you might be able to give them a different way to handle homework or advocate for themselves.
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