Do you have an Artisan Professor whose style seems odd to you? Here are key elements for understanding Artisan professors.

Artisan (SP) professors:

• Emphasize energy, activity, and competition in their courses; like students to show their reactions to class material
• Want students to demonstrate effective performance and practical application in their learning
• May be not be very precise in defining course and assignment requirements since they like to vary things and may change what they want
• Prefer real-time examples quoted on paper and exams over theoretical explanations.

If you are an Artisan, you are the most likely type to be in tune with this type of professor. If you feel confused by some of the requirements of the course, or have some other type of conflict with the professor, anger will be a detriment, but humor will be an asset.

Guardian students will appreciate the practical application and real-time examples, but can become upset over poorly defined course and assignment requirements. Talk to other students about their understanding. Then tell the professor the approach you plan to take. If you don't get any objections, proceed with your plan. Rod's English prof gave only a few instructions for the argumentative paper assignment. It could not be in any regular format, such as five paragraphs, and there were no guidelines regarding topic or length. The instructor said he wanted to break students' conceptions of "the right way" to write. Rod was clueless. Fortunately, he knew someone who had the same prof last semester. After hearing about other papers, Rod wrote an analysis of justice in The Oriental Express as a dialogue between Poirot and St. Peter. His paper received one of the higher grades in the class.

The Champion and Healer Idealists often enjoy the amount of freedom available in an Artisan professor's classroom while the Teacher and Counselor may prefer more definition. Idealists will need to remember to come up with concrete, specific examples rather than just talking globally. Maia had no idea how to start her paper in her anthropology class since the professor gave only suggestions on what he wanted. She thought back to the ideas he'd shown the most excitement over, organized those ideas, and added some highly speculative extensions. The prof raved about the paper.

Rational students will also enjoy the freedom since they prefer to define their own structure, but they need to be careful about becoming too theoretical. Like the Idealists, they will need to give real-time examples and show practicality. Stenson, an INTP, had an assignment to write an autobiography. He disliked talking about himself in the first place and felt that his life didn't compare to the exciting papers the instructor had shared as examples. So he created a puzzle paper, combining facts from his life with facts and embellished stories from the life of a famous literary person he admired. The prof had a blast working to figure out who the other person was once she realized what Stenson was up to.

All types are apt to enjoy being in an Artisan professor's classroom. Artisan professors are rather rare in the college environment compared to the other three temperaments and are more likely to be found in subjects that give more freedom or action, such as sports and the arts.

Artisan professors hate dull classrooms and passive students. Remember, they do have power over the grades they give you. The best relationship to establish with them is to be upbeat and enthusiastic.