The effect of teacher personality on the social competence of students: an empirical study in primary education classrooms

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between the social competence of students and the personal and unique behaviour of teachers in the classroom, as expressed through their personalities. This is approached by using an interactionist strategy which affirms the influence of situations upon behaviour. An exploratory empirical study which included 36 teachers and 302 students from Spanish primary schools was designed. The personality of the teachers (i.e. their adjustment, leadership, independence, consensus, and extraversion) as well as the attitudes and social thinking of the students were measured. The results showed that the age and sex of both the students and the teachers, and the personalities of the teachers were factors that affected the development of SC. Specifically, the behavioural tendencies significantly related to SC only showed this relationship with specific attitudes and thinking components of social incompetence; inhibiting some and improving others. Extraversion emerged as the teaching profile related to the greatest number of these components. This current work highlighted the importance of considering the factors studied in teacher training in order to help improve the quality of education.