AUTHOR=Corcoran Roisin P. , O’Flaherty Joanne 

TITLE=Personality Development during Teacher Preparation

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01677

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01677

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objective:</bold> The purpose of this 3-year longitudinal study was to examine pre-service teachers’ personality trajectories as measured by the IPIP Big-Five factor markers during teacher preparation. The relationship between students’ personality traits, social desirability, and prior academic attainment was also examined.</p><p><bold>Method:</bold> This 3-year longitudinal study invited participants from the first year of a 4-year undergraduate (UG) pre-service teacher education program, the class of 2017. The sample consisted of 305 students.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> The results suggest that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience were best represented by a non-significant longitudinal change in means. Results also suggest that social desirability predicts agreeableness and emotional stability with small to moderate effect sizes.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> The study concludes that no value is added to pre-service teachers’ personality traits during 3 years of tertiary education. Furthermore, the data presented does not support the view that academic attainment is a good predictor of personality traits. Implications for educational research, theory, and practice are considered.</p>