Abstract:

One of the most influential factors contributing to student achievement according with the review of Hattie (2021) is the teacher itself. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the teacher personality, its teaching strategies and the achievement of its students. For this purpose, a sample of 87 teachers of the University of Zaragoza was recruited. The teachers were asked to fulfil the Big Five Personality Trait Short Questionnaire (BFPTSQ; Martinez’s, 2015, adaptation to Spanish) and a questionnaire about High Education Teacher’s Teaching and Assessment Methods (CEMEDEPU; Gargallo et al., 2011). The results showed positive correlations between a student centred teaching method and the personality factors of openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. Positive correlations were also found for teacher skills and openness to experience, agreeableness, and responsibility. No differences were found between the big five personality traits and academic results, measured as percentages of success rate (calculated as number of pass divided by the total number of pass and fails), probably because it is not a very sensitive measure of achievement. These results highlight the importance of teacher’s personality traits on the academic context since it could determine their teaching method and skills.

Keywords:

Personality, teaching methods, teaching skills.