Personality

For decades, the public and researchers have assumed that the personality of teachers significantly affects the quality of teaching and student outcomes. A person's personality describes their tendencies to act, think and feel across situations and times. In psychology, a person's personality is now mainly described based on five broad trait dimensions, the so-called Big Five:

1. neuroticism: people with strong expressions of this trait can be described as anxious, worried and vulnerable.
2. extraversion includes the traits sociable, assertive and active.
3. openness to new experiences: People with high scores describe themselves as inquisitive, imaginative and keen to experiment.
4. agreeableness describes the degree of caring and friendliness towards others.
5. conscientiousness refers to self-organization and determination.

Our research focuses on the following questions:

What personality do prospective teachers have compared to other students?

The importance of personality traits that already manifest themselves prior to teacher training is particularly emphasized in the context of recruiting and selecting suitable people for the teaching profession (aptitude hypothesis; Klassen et al., 2014; Mayr, 2000).

Our study showed that prospective teachers hardly differed in personality from students in other subject areas. Their average emotional stability was the same and the elementary school teaching students were more agreeable and extraverted than non-teaching students (Klusmann et al., 2009; Roloff-Henoch et al., 2015)

How does the personality of teachers affect their professional practice?

Various theoretical models postulate an effect of teachers' personality on their professional practice (Kunter et al., 2011; Rimm-Kaufman & Hamre, 2010). Our study showed that personality traits at the beginning of teacher training have little influence on how successful prospective teachers are in their teaching during their studies and later in their careers. Only the personality dimension agreeableness was reflected in a more positive assessment of their students on key dimensions of instructional quality (Roloff et al., 2020).

However, personality appears to play an important role in professional well-being. A longitudinal study showed the predictive validity of conscientiousness and neuroticism for the emotional exhaustion of teachers (Roloff et al., 2017). Typically, teachers characterized by low levels of conscientiousness and high levels of neuroticism reported high levels of emotional exhaustion. In a recent meta-analysis, we also found substantial correlations between personality and burnout in teachers (Roloff et al., 2022).