For the past twenty-five years, PeopleKeys has studies human behavior, strengths, and personal preferences. According to the introduction of the StudentKeys Student Binder, it was "designed to help individuals identify, appreciate, and capitalize on natural strengths so that they will be better prepared to communicate, learn, think, make critical decisions, and set realistic goals."
The StudentKeys package includes The Personality Style Workbook, The Perceptual Learning Style Workbook, The Cognitive Thinking Style Workbook, The Values Style Workbook, The Career Choice Workbook, and The Goal Setting Workbook.
Addison, our fifteen year old, worked through the six workbooks in the StudentKeys binder. She wanted to use the information gained in the program to help her decide what sorts of college majors and careers she would be best suited for. She then shared her thoughts about each of the workbooks.
The Personality Style Workbook (17 pages long) introduces the idea of four personality types (DISC) and defines them. There are 15 quiz questions in the Personality Style Questionnaire which helps determine your dominant personality type. Addison says that these questions required a lot of self-reflection and asked to to assess yourself. For instance, "My personality is mostly ________" or "My normal tone of voice is ________." After she tallied the scores for each category, they were plotted on a graph that showed how high she in each area. The rest of the workbook listed characteristics of people with each personality type and gave suggestions for how to work with people of differing types. Addison didn't find the DISC determination helpful because her scores on the graph were fairly evenly distributed amongst the personality styles. Since she had a combination personality style, she felt like she hadn't identified any real strengths that she could capitalize on.
Addison's favorite workbook was The Perceptual Learning Style Workbook (19 pages long). She liked the way the quiz questions asked what she would do in a specific situation. She thought that style of questioning was both easier to answer and more accurate. The results told her which one of three learning styles was her strongest (primary perceptual learning style) and which one was her secondary learning style. The workbook gave useful information about each type of learner and practical tips on how to best retain the information that she studies.
The Cognitive Thinking Style Workbook (17 pages long) had a quiz that was very similar to personality style in terms of having to assess herself. She found out she's a literal thinker, which was no big surprise. As she worked through the rest of the workbook, she found characteristics of other thinking styles that apply to her as well. The final section of the workbook gave practical suggestions for how she could improve learning by working with her natural thinking style instead of against it.
Addison felt that the results in The Values Style Workbook (16 pages long) were a bit colored by her Christian beliefs. She scored highest in loyalty, meaning she sticks to things she believes in. She thinks those results reflect her decision to stay faithful to her Christian beliefs and maintain a good reputation. She doesn't necessarily think that she would score as loyal if she weren't looking at the questions about "principles in which I believe" as being her basic Christian beliefs. The results may or may not be different if she had just talked about values in general. Much of the explanatory material in this workbook dealt with relationships with people that have a differing value style; these relationships could either be personal relationships or work-related.
The Career Choice Workbook (24 pages long) was the one that Addison was most disappointed with. It had a DISC assessment that was very similar to the one in The Personality Style Workbook. For each personality type, it had a list of about 40 occupations that could be a good fit. Later, there was a more exhaustive list of occupations and suggested style(s) for each one. Addison was hoping that she'd receive a manageable list of careers she was suited for, and this assessment did not narrow down her options much at all.
The Goal Setting Workbook (17 pages long) had good general information about setting and reaching your goal. A large portion of the workbook, however, was just blank areas for Addison to write down goals in various area.
The StudentKeys package included several assessments that can helped better understand herself. Addison learned how she can study most effective, and she also learned some tips for how to interact with people that have different personality, learning, or values styles. She highly praised The Perceptual Learning Style Workbook and recommended that I use it with Brennan. She thinks it would be helpful in figuring out how I could help him learn new materials.
The StudentKeys Student Binder cost $49 and is recommended for ages 13 and up. If you are interested in just one or two of the workbooks, they can be purchased individually for $13 each.
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