A survey of 217 Slovak teachers linked personality traits with how teachers rated communication and classroom assessment.
The findings describe self-perceptions rather than observed teaching quality.
What researchers studied
Researchers at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra examined whether Big Five personality domains related to three self-ratings: interpersonal communication, monitoring pupils’ understanding and scaffolding-related support.
The cross-sectional sample included primary- and secondary-school teachers.
Participants completed questionnaires about personality and their professional practices.
Researchers used simultaneous regression models with robust standard errors and corrections for multiple testing.
The design compared scores at one point in time, without observing classroom interactions or tracking changes in pupils’ learning.
What they found
Together, the five personality domains accounted for 51.0% of variation in communication scores, 44.5% in monitoring and 43.7% in scaffolding-related support.
Agreeableness and open-mindedness were positively associated with all three outcomes.
Extraversion was associated with communication, while conscientiousness related to monitoring and scaffolding.
These percentages describe statistical models fitted to teachers’ questionnaire responses; they do not mean personality determines the same share of actual teaching effectiveness or pupil achievement.
What it means
The results suggest professional development could connect listening, reflection and feedback with assessment routines.
Teachers can practise adapting explanations, checking understanding and responding constructively to students regardless of their personality profile.
The researchers caution against using correlations to label teachers suitable or unsuitable for teaching.
Schools would need classroom observations and student outcomes before concluding that particular training approaches work.
Personality tests are not substitutes for professional knowledge or demonstrated classroom competence.
Important limitation
The non-probability sample was unevenly distributed across demographic and career groups.
Every principal measure relied on self-report, allowing social desirability and shared questionnaire methods to affect results.
The cross-sectional design cannot establish whether personality shapes practices or whether unmeasured circumstances explain the associations.
The study did not independently measure classroom performance, so its explained variance cannot be interpreted as verified teaching quality.
Source Information
Study: Teacher personality and self-reported interpersonal communication and assessment for learning practices
Authors: Marcela Verešová; Katarína Grznárová
Journal / Source: Frontiers in Education
Published: 10 November 2026
