Teacher personality traits and student instructional ratings in six types of university courses

Colleague ratings of 29 personality traits were studied in relation to student ratings of teaching effectiveness in a sample of 46 psychology teachers. Instructors were evaluated in six different types of university courses, ranging from freshman lecture classes to graduate research seminars. Major findings were as follows: (I) Rated teaching effectiveness varied substantially across different types of courses for a given instructor; (2) teaching effectiveness in each type of course could be predicted with considerable accuracy from colleague ratings of personality; and (3) the specific personality traits contributing to effective teaching differed markedly for different course types. It was concluded that psychology instructors tend to be differentially suited to different types of courses and furthermore that the compatibility of instructors to courses is determined in part by personality characteristics.

[1]  Herbert W. Marsh,et al.  The Use of Path Analysis to Estimate Teacher and Course Effects in Student Ratings of Instructional Effectiveness , 1982 .

[2]  J. P. Rushton,et al.  Personality, Classroom Behavior, and Student Ratings of College Teaching Effectiveness: A Path Analysis. , 1985 .

[3]  Hans J. Eysenck,et al.  Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire , 1975 .

[4]  D. Jackson.  Personality research form manual , 1974 .

[5]  J. Fleiss,et al.  Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. , 1979, Psychological bulletin.

[6]  A. W. Bendig.  Ability and Personality Characteristics of Introductory Psychology Instructors Rated Competent and Empathetic by Their Students , 1955 .

[7]  Joseph Lowman,et al.  Mastering the Techniques of Teaching , 1984 .

[8]  Kenneth A. Feldman,et al.  The perceived instructional effectiveness of college teachers as related to their personality and attitudinal characteristics: A review and synthesis , 1986 .

[9]  K. Feldman.  Research productivity and scholarly accomplishment of college teachers as related to their instructional effectiveness: A review and exploration , 1987 .

[10]  Robert T. Blackburn,et al.  Personal Characteristics and Teaching Effectiveness of College Faculty. , 1975 .

[11]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[12]  K. Crittenden,et al.  Evaluating college teaching as leadership , 1975 .

[13]  A. Hollenbeck,et al.  The Effect of Emotional State on Student Ratings of Instructors , 1982 .

[14]  H. Marsh.  Students ' Evaluations of University Teaching : Dimensionality , Reliability , Validity , Potential Biases , and Utility , 2005 .

[15]  Anthony T. Tomasco.  Student Perceptions of Instructional and Personality Characteristics of Faculty: A Canonical Analysis , 1980 .

[16]  H. G. Murray,et al.  Predicting Student Ratings of College Teaching from Peer Ratings of Personality Types , 1975 .

[17]  D. Berliner.  Impediments to the Study of Teacher Effectiveness , 1976 .

[18]  J. P. Rushton,et al.  Personality, research creativity, and teaching effectiveness in university professors , 1983, Scientometrics.

[19]  Kenneth A. Feldman,et al.  Course characteristics and college students' ratings of their teachers: What we know and what we don't , 1978 .