How Personality Traits Impact Learning — Sey Education Solutions

Written By Abena Sey

October 11, 2020

A personality trait is an innate part of a child’s character, and can have impacts on a child's success in school and in their peer relationships. As a classroom teacher, I have seen personality traits present themselves in how my students respond to academic challenges and social pressures. Is there a direct relationship between specific personality traits and students’ academic achievement, motivation to learn, goals, and attitude towards learning? Mikael Jensen’s (2015) study examined this question considering the five-factor model of personality traits. The five-factor model of personality traits includes such qualities as openness to experience, extroversion, consciousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Openness, Conscientiousness and Intrinsic Motivation

Jensen discussed poignant correlations between the personality traits of openness and conscientiousness, and intrinsic motivation. Openness is typically correlated to intrinsic motivation to know more and be stimulated, while consciousness is strongly correlated to an intrinsic motivation to accomplish.

Consciousness, Neuroticism, Openness and Learning Approach

Motivation can be correlated to three learning approaches - surface, deep, and achieving. A surface approach means that students learn just enough to pass the assessment. On the contrary, a deep approach to learning implies that students are genuinely interested in a particular area of knowledge, and seek to learn as much about it as possible for as long as possible. To add, consciousness and neuroticism are motivators for students to perform well in the eyes of others. Learning behaviours associated with conscientious personality include planning, organizing time and material, and performing. On the other hand, those who display openness personality traits know how to gain knowledge, independently study things that others may have overlooked or considered irrelevant as relevant, create and organize new knowledge, think about their own learning and understanding what they learn.

Academic Achievement and Personality Type

Jensen acknowledged that the measure of academic achievement in school is limited to two personality types, so those who do not have openness or conscientiousness type personalities may not demonstrate conventional academic achievement. Jensen suggested that teachers re-evaluate assessments to account for the other personality types.

I believe that teachers will see a marked improvement in students’ engagement in classroom activities when they differentiate their teaching strategies to account for their students’ personality types. This is another way to reach the most learners. Students will feel empowered when they are able to positively and effectively use their individual personality types to maximize their learning. As you plan your curriculum, consider the following question for each learning activity: Considering the various personality types of my students, what are some ways they can effectively demonstrate their learning?

Reference

Jensen, M. (2015). Personality Traits, Learning and Academic Achievements. Journal of Education and Learning, v4 n4 p91-118 2015.