Exploring the Relationship between Teacher Effectiveness and Personality Traits

The study attempts to examine the relationship between personality traits and teacher effectiveness. Personality traits are measured by five dimensions: neuroticism extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientio-usness. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a sample of 450 trained teachers was taken from Secondary Govt. aided Schools of West Bengal, India who have completed their B.Ed. from the B.Ed College affiliated by University of Calcutta. Collected data was analyzed by using Correlations at bi-variate level to identify the pattern of relationship among sets of variables under the study and Multivariate Regression for analyzing the predicting power of the variables. It was found that Teacher Effectiveness scores of trained Secondary Govt. aided School Teachers were significantly correlated with their Extroversion and Openness of NEO-FFI. Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness of NEO-FFI scores were negatively correlated with Teacher Effectiveness scores. Openness has the highest predictive power for Teacher Effectiveness. The findings provide guidelines for teacher education curriculum reform, teacher recruitment procedure & criterion and for Professional Development Programme (PDP).