The ENFJ Education Experience

The ENFJ Learning Style

ENFJs are extremely social people. They use extraverted feeling as their dominant function, which is focused on other people, and this is also the way they learn best. This type would much rather talk to others about new information or have debates or in some other way interact with new information than just sit and try to absorb it. This can cause a problem for them in normal learning environments, where they need to sit and listen. An ENFJ needs to be given lots of chances to interact with new knowledge if they’re going to understand it, and if they’re going to learn to enjoy the learning experience.

ENFJs use introverted intuition as their auxiliary function. This is also their learning function, and ENFJs need to learn to use it if they want to excel in academics. This function works quietly. It requires time alone to contemplate and to make patterns and use those patterns to predict the future. Unfortunately, because ENFJs are so social, they often fight against the impulse to use this function because they don’t want to spend so much time alone thinking. But if they learn to develop introverted intuition, they often find a whole new world opening up for them in academics and in their own lives as well.

The ENFJs Learning Challenges

ENFJs prefer to learn by interacting with others, to share and discuss new information, and this is often their natural impulse. But the traditional learning style in schools, where students sit silently and listen, demands the opposite. This can be incredibly stifling to this type. In fact, it runs so counter to the ENFJs natural tendencies that it may permanently damage their natural love of learning or their natural curiosity, and this can be a major and lifelong problem. Teachers and parents of an ENFJ need to take care to make sure this doesn’t happen or risk the ENFJ disengaging and their grades dropping sharply.

ENFJs in High School

ENFJs are natural chameleons. Their dominant function is extraverted feeling, which drives them to make the people around them happy. To this end, they often change their own personality and their approach to suit the people around them. An ENFJ can be wild and exciting to some peers and soothing to others. In fact, it can sometimes be hard to know what this type are really like, particularly when they’re young and don’t have a good sense of themselves. And this skill usually makes them very popular in high school. ENFJs will usually be at the center of their social group, happy to lead or to follow depending on the others in their group. This can cause problems for this type, but it also makes for a relatively happy high school experience.

There can be a wide split in how ENFJs cope with the academic side of high school. Because of their dominant function, this type wants to make others happy. This function also makes them very aware of social norms and pressures, so they can be very eager to obey them and to fit in with their group. And if an ENFJ has parents or teachers who push them to do well at school, the ENFJ will often bow to this kind of pressure. However, if they don’t have this guidance, an ENFJ may find themselves controlled by their peer group, whose members usually aren’t focused on the academic side of high school. And if this happens, it can cause a lot of problems for their academic present and future.

Higher Education and the ENFJ

As with most aspects of their lives, ENFJs will thrive in the social atmosphere at college. This type enjoy being around others and making them happy, and these traits naturally draw people to them. This often becomes particularly obvious in higher education, where it’s important that people learn and stretch socially as well as academically, and an ENFJ’s social education in this setting will usually be thorough. However, they also need to be careful that this doesn’t go too far. Because ENFJs use a function which focuses on making others happy and obeying social norms, they can step over their own internal boundaries and do things they normally wouldn’t if they feel pressured to do so. And in higher education, this kind of susceptibility to peer pressure can lead to a range of negative and even damaging behaviors.

ENFJs may not enjoy the academic side of high school, but they often find that higher learning suits them very well. Around this age, an ENFJ’s introverted intuition should be developing, which will drive them to spend more time alone contemplating abstract ideas and possibilities. And this type of intuitive thought suits higher education very well. In fact, an ENFJ may find that it allows them to connect with their teachers and to understand them and what they’re saying on a much deeper level. This will both ensure that they get good marks, and give them a new appreciation for ideas and learning that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.

Final Thoughts

There can be a wide variety in how ENFJs experience high school and higher education and a lot of it depends on their maturity and their self-development. An ENFJ who is too focused on their dominant function, to the exclusion of other parts of their personality, will often find themselves too focused on others and unable to feel or express other needs or interests. In fact, this type can actually lose themselves in the push to make others happy, and this is something they need to work on for the benefit of every part of their lives.

References

1. 1. Storm Susan. “Understanding ENFJ Feeling“. Mar 17, 2017. (Retrieved Mar 2018).
   2. Irish Chelsea. “Developing Perspectives for ENTJs and ENFJs“. Jul 26, 2016. (Retrieved Mar 2018).
   3. “ENFJ – The Mentor“.