Personality and Ability Traits of Teachers: Student Perceptions

The study attempts to explore higher education students’ perceptions of proficient teachers, which is of importance to them in their learning. Since no effective system of teacher evaluation was in place in Pakistan until recently to distinguish between good and poor teachers, research shows that poor teaching quality is pervasive in higher education institutions in the country. The study analyzed students’ views of good and poor teaching through two focus group discussions with students from two engineering schools in Pakistan. The hematic coding of data yielded the desired outcomes of students’ views according to the personality and ability traits their teachers demonstrated. It was revealed that teachers possessed both categories of characteristics to a certain extent with the shortcomings of approachability, ability to bring knowledge to the level of the students, low emotional intelligence and poor communication ability resulting there from. It is expected that action to improve teaching quality would result in awareness of the problem.  Keywords : behavioral theory, cognitive theory, effective teaching, personality characteristics, teacher behavior