Personality, classroom behavior, and student ratings of college teaching effectiveness: A path analysis.

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that classroom teaching behavior mediates the relation typically found between personality and college teaching effectiveness. Colleagues rated 37 full-time college instructors on 29 personality traits, and trained observers assessed the frequency with which the same instructors exhibited 95 specific classroom teaching behaviors. Instructional effectiveness was measured by global end-of-term student ratings averaged over a 5-year period. Path analyses revealed that approximately 50% of the relation between personality and teaching effectiveness was mediated by classroom behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the validity of student ratings of teaching and in relation to Dunkin and Biddle's (1974) model of classroom teaching.