The Big Five Personality Traits, teacher self-efficacy and teacher effectiveness amongst government-aided secondary school teachers in Kampala District

Abstract

The study sought to determine a relationship between the Big five personality traits teachers ‘self- efficacy, and teacher effectiveness. Personality traits were measured by five dimensions: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness; teacher self-efficacy was measured by engagement, instruction and management while teacher effectiveness was measured by planning, classroom management, and knowledge of subject matter, teacher characteristics and interpersonal relationship. The study employed a correlation and cross-sectional survey design which involved the use of questionnaires to collect data from a sample of 200 teachers selected from government aided secondary schools in Kampala using stratified random sampling. The study had a 96.6% response rate. Data was analyzed using frequency counts, means and standard deviations for demographic characteristics and description of variable while correlation analysis (r) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed a positive significant relationship between teacher self-efficacy and the Big five personality traits on extraversion (p<0.05), conscientiousness (p<0.05), and openness (p<0.05). However, there was no significant relationship between teacher self-efficacy and Big Five traits of agreeableness (p>0.05) and neuroticism ((p>0.05). Teacher self-efficacy was not significantly correlated with teaching effectiveness (p>0.05). The big five personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness were not significantly corrected with teachers’ effectiveness (p>0.05), while extraversion was significantly related with teacher effectiveness (p<0.05). Notwithstanding the limitations of study, the findings do provide empirical support for the relationship between personality traits, and teachers’ self-efficacy and teaching effectiveness. Ultimately, the relationship between personality traits and teaching effectiveness can inform hiring practices, course assignments, and professional development of teachers. Teachers with appropriate personality traits could help reduce course drop rates and improve instruction and increase overall performance of students. The study recommends to prospective researchers to; expand samples from other locations to make broader research and examine background variables and analyze personality traits one by one as independent variable against teaching effectiveness as a dependent variable.