Personality and Preservice Teachers: Does it Change, Does it Matter?
Authors
Peter D. Wiens
University of Virginia
Sean Ruday
Longwood University
Abstract
What is the role of personality in teaching effectiveness? This paper uses personality to examine if good teachers are a result of nature or training. We examine if personality is a stable trait in preservice teachers and the predictive ability of personality on preservice teaching performance. While teachers in the sample show strong tendencies towards certain personality types, there is no significant relationship between personality and teaching effectiveness. However, personality does show significant correlations with participants’ satisfaction with their career choice and their future plans regarding teaching. Taken together our results show a complex relationship between personality and teaching.
