What are the personality traits of the successful teacher?

Abstract

A personality inventory was administered to 301 teachers. The teachers were divided, on the basis of supervisors' ratings, into a group of the more successful and a group of the less successful teachers. Analysis of the responses to inventory items revealed that the more successful teachers reported themselves to be (1) more at ease in social contacts, (2) more willing to assume responsibility, (3) less subject to fears and worries, (4) more sensitive to the opinions of others, (5) slower in making decisions than the less successful teachers. The 43 items which differentiated the more from the less successful teachers were rescored according to their degree and direction of differentiation. The total scores thus obtained were found to differentiate also, "as would be expected from the manner in which the scores… were derived." Of the 301 teachers, 62 were from a group that might be expected to be better teachers; these 62 obtained higher total scores on the average than did the other 239 teachers. Each teacher was asked to indicate the degree to which he liked teaching. A significant relationship was found between expressed liking for teaching and high scores on the 43 items. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)