ABSTRACT
For the past two decades Barbara Keogh has been one of the leaders in research and thinking on temperament in childhood. Although her work has been particularly focused on the individual child and teacher in the classroom, her contributions to the field extend far beyond that setting. In this chapter, we describe some of Keogh’s major contributions to the temperament area, and use her research and thinking as a starting point to discuss some continuing issues in temperament and education. We then address questions about the structure of temperament and its development. We argue that the shorter list of temperament dimensions under current study makes it feasible for educators to consider temperament-related classroom strategies that will apply to groups of children rather than to single individuals. Finally, we discuss the applicability of concepts of temperament to the schooling of children with developmental disabilities.
