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ABSTRACT
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to infer group membership of teaching styles based on personality traits among management teachers.
Design/methodology/approach
"Ten Item Personality Inventory" and "Grasha's Teaching style Inventory" were used to collect responses along with some demographic information such as gender, age, work experience, specialization, qualification and numbers of students in classroom from 101 management teachers through survey method. One way ANOVA and discriminate analysis were conducted to analyze the data.
Findings
Significant difference was found between the different demographic variables and personality traits as well as teaching styles. Findings also revealed that out of five personality traits (Big Five) conscientiousness and openness to experience characterise expert teaching style users, whereas users of facilitator teaching style were portrayed by emotional stability and extraversion and delegators by agreeableness and extraversion traits. None of the personality traits differentiated between the users of formal authority and the personal model teaching styles.
Research limitations/implications (if applicable)
This study has implications for academicians in developing suitable teaching styles as per their personality. The research was conducted for management teachers only. Hence, the results cannot be generalized to other areas.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates the importance of personality assessment before choosing a teaching style.
Keywords: teaching style, personality traits, management teachers, discriminant analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
Teaching is an essential human interaction activity; therefore it is also influenced by the personal qualities of an individual. These qualities are personality preference and styles of an individual and these include the learning and teaching styles. Each human activity is an integral and intrinsic part of the individual. This has a unique style of an individual for different situations. Allport (1961) stated, "Style reflects the oblique mirroring of personal traits. These traits either improve performance or distort it depend on its operative intensity stylistically."
Professors have their own teaching styles and also believe that the style they use is appropriate as per their need and situations, as they understand that management education cannot be "all things to all people" (Thompson, 1997).
Teachers always have interactions with students. Students come from diverse backgrounds and cultures. These students have different learning styles. The Students' learning styles and teachers' teaching styles' interaction takes place in a different environment which is the classroom.
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