Personalizing your teaching
Finding your teaching style has a lot to do with knowing your individual personality and how you perceive yourself in your community environment.
You may not be able to change your personality, but you can take ownership of your teaching style with self-reflection and self-awareness. Knowing your personality can help inform how you develop your teaching methods, practices, and strategies in ways that are genuine and authentic to you and your voice.
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Personality is interconnected with identity, thus forging a connection between teachers' identities and their pedagogical styles. From a socio-cultural perspective, identity is shaped by one's perceived relationship to their environment and community. Personality also shapes how one perceives that position.
"The question of interest is not only whether I can create a unique identity as teacher from within myself (rather than in response to other people’s, or external, expectations), but also whether there might be a way of being a teacher that is uniquely my own while at the same time linked, and committed, to something significant that lies beyond my self."
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(Kreber, 2010, p.172)
Furthermore, teacher authenticity--both in terms of identity and pedagogical practice--can help students develop a sense of self-autonomy and self-efficacy. Understanding personality traits from a psychological perspective can help build authenticity in one's own teaching style. Personality is defined as:"the unique and relatively stable pattern of behaviour, emotions and thoughts shown by an individual" (Kothari and Pingle, 2015, p.18). The patterns of personality or types "play a significant role in influencing teachers’ teaching styles and strategies" (20).
When teachers are aware of their personality traits and the strengths and challenges they might come with, they can better define their teaching style making it possible for them to create the best learning environment possible for their students (Conti and Fellenz, 1988a).
Teachers can learn more about their personality with the Big Five Model, which include five personality dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to experience.
These personality factors can paired with one or more of Grasha's five teaching styles depending on whether they are high or low on a certain trait. Grasha's five teaching styles include Expert, Formal Authority, Personal Model, Facilitator, and Delegator (1996). For instance, the "expert" teaching style corresponds with traits of conscientiousness and openness to experience, whereas the "delegator" links to the trait of "extraversion" (Kothari and Pingle 24-25).
In the end, personality must be part of a teacher's self-evaluation process. Teachers who are consciously aware of what styles can them teach authentically are likely have a keener ability to articulate learning outcomes and assess student learning. We encourage you to visit our "Defining Teaching Styles" page to explore what styles may best serve you.
Works Cited
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Conti G. J. and Fellenz R. A. (1988). Teaching and learning styles and the Native American learner. Adult
Education Research Conference Proceedings, University of Calgary.
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Grasha A.F. (1996). Teaching with style: a practical guide to enhancing learning by understanding teaching and learning style. Pittsburgh: Alliance Publishers.
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Kothari, T. P. and Pingle S.S. (2015). Personality traits and teaching style of management teachers: an empirical study. The Journal - Contemporary Management Research, Vol.9, Issue No. 2, 16 - 38.
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Kreber, Caroline. (2010). Academics’ teacher identities, authenticity and pedagogy. Studies in Higher Education
Vol. 35, No. 2, 171–194.
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