Teacher personality domains and facets: Their unique associations with student-ratings of teaching quality and teacher enthusiasm

Previous research on the relationship between teacher personality and teaching performance yielded mixed results and typically considered only the broad personality domains while neglecting the narrower personality facets that constitute the domains. The aim of this study was to examine the incremental value of teacher Big Five personality facets in explaining student-ratings of teaching quality and teacher enthusiasm. In total, 1067 teachers and 18,814 of their students from 73 secondary schools in Croatia participated in the study. Teachers self-reported their personality whereas students rated the teaching quality and displayed enthusiasm of their teachers. Each teacher was rated by one class of students. The bifactor-(S-1) multilevel structural equation models for each Big Five personality domain showed that both the general reference factor and the specific factors explained the variance in student-ratings of teaching quality and teacher enthusiasm. A more fine-grained approach to examining the effects of teacher personality at different levels of hierarchy might be helpful for identifying specific parts of teacher personality with the greatest explanatory power in predicting teaching performance. •The hierarchy of teacher Big Five personality was modeled.•Teacher personality was related to teaching quality and teacher enthusiasm.•The general reference factor and specific factors incrementally explained teaching.