Abstract:

The Big Five describe the personality of an individual and are expressed in terms of neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. According to a German investigation, the Big Five influence also the study choice. Educational science students, for example, were generally more agreeable than other students, while science students were more introverted and business students particularly conscientious. Aim of this research is to investigate differences in personality in kindergarten and primary-school trainee teachers regarding their teaching preferences in social and natural sciences. It was also analyzed whether trainee teachers who prefer to teach a certain topic differ in term of personality traits from trainee teachers who dislike teaching the mentioned topic. Data collection was carried as by a survey composed by the Nature-Human-Society questionnaire and the Big Five Inventory 10. One hundred and ninety-six first-year students of a kindergarten and primary-school trainee teacher program participated in the survey. The results evidence that kindergarten and primary-school trainee teachers generally prefer to teach geographical, biological, social, historical, and ethical topic, whereas they dislike teaching astronomical, economic, religious, physical, and technical topics. Furthermore, the sample showed the highest personality scores in conscientiousness and extraversion, followed by neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness. If the sample is divided in those who like a certain subject, different patterns regarding the Big Five are found. There were also found different correlations between the Nature-Human-Society questionnaire scales affection, perceived capability as well as experience towards several Nature-Human-Society perspectives.

Keywords:

Big Five, Nature-Human-Society, Teaching, students.