Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.

Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.

(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)

The relationship of teacher personality types to classroom effectiveness with at-risk students in special education residential schools

Janet R Rommel, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

This dissertation examined the personality types of ten selected teachers with one or more year's experience in the Hillcrest Educational Centers, Inc.'s residential schools to determine whether certain personality types were more effective than others in working with at-risk special education students in a classroom setting. This study also described how these types performed in the classroom, as well as their interactions with students outside of the classroom, giving consideration to the kinds of affect, approaches, and teaching styles utilized by each. The central focus of this study was an interpretive perspective of these teachers, with data generated by participant observation and in-depth interviews. All teachers were given the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and five were selected by their supervisors and their peers as the most effective teachers, while five more were selected who were not so designated, to function as the control group. Although the findings of the study did not substantiate the validity of specific personality types as effective teachers, there was a high correlation between the characteristics of the effective teachers and the body of research on effective teaching. A more in-depth study, with a larger population sample, and the use of the newly developed more comprehensive MBTI, might yield better results toward finding clusters of specific effective teacher personality types.

Subject Area

Curricula|Teaching|Secondary education|Personality|Special education

Recommended Citation

Rommel, Janet R, "The relationship of teacher personality types to classroom effectiveness with at-risk students in special education residential schools" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9233150.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9233150

Share

COinS