PERSONALITY TRAIT AND LEARNING STYLE OF GRADE 9 STUDENTS OF

LAGAO NATIONAL HIGHSCHOOL OF ANNEX

INTRODUCTION:

The consistent high level traits associated with the way an individual interacts
with other individuals and groups. Learning: The processes by which an individual
acquires new skills, behaviors, or understandings, often in a formal setting called
education. The first concern of the current study is to find out if there are some common
personality traits of Turkish teachers of English (henceforth EFL teachers). The next
concern relates to their learning styles and factors affecting them, and the last one is the
relationship between these two variables.

The phrase personality sounds simple and direct, but when it comes to defining
it, different perceptions might arise. For example, one definition of personality refers to it
as an inborn temperament and features arising in different situations and a combination
of the characteristics of a person which separate him/her from other people (Phares,
1991: p. 29). Another definition might ignore this innateness and put emphasis on
individual’s psychological functions and social interactions; to "An individual's pattern of
psychological processes arising from motives, feelings, thoughts, and other major areas
of psychological function. Personality is expressed through its influences on the body, in
conscious mental life, and through the individual's social behavior." (Mayer, 2005).
Deciding on general personality types has been a very active field of study because it
seems that personality is related with nearly all aspects of human life. One of the most
valid and reliable inventories is NEO Five-factor Inventory (henceforth FFI) (Costa and
McRae, 1985) which is used to assess neuroticism (the susceptibility to psychological
distress, inability to control urges, proneness to unrealistic ideas and inability to cope
with stress), EXTRAVERSION (the disposition towards positive emotions, sociability
and high activity), openness to experience (the proclivity towards variety, intellectual
curiosity and aesthetic sensitivity), agreeableness (the inclination towards interpersonal
trust and consideration of others), and conscientiousness (the tendency towards
persistence, industriousness and organization) (Costa et al., 1991). The following
outline of these personality types (Haslam, 2007: pp. 26-28) presents them with
opposing concepts.

EXTRAVERSION- is a term that originated in the personality theory of Carl Jung,

who meant by it an orientation to the outside world rather than to private experience.
Extraversion is best exemplified by traits involving sociability, in particular a preference
for large groups.

AGREEABLENESS-, it involves cooperativeness, altruism, and a generally

warm, compliant, and trusting stance towards others. Disagreeable individuals are
characterized as cold, callous, selfish, calculating, hostile, and competitive in their
motivations.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS- generally reflects self-control, planfulness, and being

organized, efficient, and deliberate in one’s approach to tasks. Unconscientious people
tend to be impulsive, disorganized, oriented to the present rather than the future, and
careless towards their responsibilities. NEUROTICISM- has to do with people’s
emotional instability. Negative emotions, including anger, sadness, shame, and
embarrassment. Does not imply the presence of any mental disorder. In this expanded
sense, neurotic people are more prone to experience negative emotions, to be
psychologically maladjusted and vulnerable, and to have low self-esteem.
 OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE- is a somewhat vague term for a factor that has
proven to be controversial and difficult to name. Metaphorically, ‘openness’ implies a
willingness to adopt novel and unconventional ways of thinking and behaving, manifest
in such traits as creativity, imaginativeness, curiosity, and aesthetic appreciation. Open
people are heavily invested in cultivating new experiences, and have a mild tendency to
score relatively high on measures of intelligence. People who fall at the other end of this
factor are conventional and narrow in their interests, and conservative and sometimes
rigid in their approach to life’s challenges and opportunities. These personality traits
shouldn’t be considered as categories with clear boundaries. Actually, pathological
cases set aside, it is not usual for an individual to score dominantly high in one category
and very low in another. Therefore, FFI doesn’t provide score ranges to determine the
personality type, but rather a dispersion model of personality.

LEARNING STYLE Generally speaking, it is very hard to come to an agreement

on definitions of concepts that are directly related to human beings. When it comes to
define learning, which is innate in human nature, it is even harder to come up with one
universally accepted definition (Shuell, 1986). However, there are common points in the
statements trying to define human learning. First of all, learning involves some changes
in behavior that result from experience (Taylor & MacKenney, 2008) and that endures
over time (Schunk, 2012). Lafrancois (2000) restricts the definition by claiming that we
can talk about learning if a relatively permanent change is not the result of fatigue,
maturation, drugs, or physical injury. From these different perspectives we could deduce
that learning is a relatively permanent change in human behavior that happens over
time as a result of natural experience that people go through. In the related literature,
learning style is regarded as a way of learning. Learning styles consist of strategies
such as superficial or deep processing of information, holistic and serial processing of
knowledge, processing knowledge in details, retention and systematic recalling (Busato
et al., 1998). Learning styles can be regarded as a way which the individuals follow
during the steps of receiving and processing information (Ekici, 2013). Accordingly, the
most common learning styles are divided into three categories; deep processing of
information, acquiring knowledge. and superficial knowledge. People who learn through
deep information processing enjoy exploring as much as they can and also like being
intrinsically motivated. Learners with high performance-orientation to acquire knowledge
are extrinsically motivated in terms of learning behaviors due to the award which will
come as a result of high performance. Finally, learners who embrace superficial
learning styles focus on the minimum effort necessary to ensure success. Research has
shown that learning style shows a linear relationship between academic achievements.
For example, while there is a positive relationship between deep learning and academic
averages, superficial learning has a negative relationship with exam results (Chamorro-
Premuzic and Furnham, 2008). Accordingly, to demonstrate the best learning style, a
variety of learning style approaches have been developed. The best known among
these is Kolb (1984)'s approach to learning styles. According to Kolb, learning is
composed of two intersecting dimensions namely concrete experience (reflective
observation, active experimentation), and abstract conceptualization; and four types of
learning styles are mentioned namely, diverging, assimilating, converging, and
accommodating (Busato et al., 1998; Gencel, 2007).

DIVERGING Individuals with diverging learning style, concrete experience and

reflective observation dimensions are dominant. These learners approach to concrete
situations with different perspectives, and they organize relationships between events in
a meaningful way. In a given situation, instead of taking action immediately, they make
observations at first. They have developed thinking skills and are aware of meanings
and values. These individuals, who take into account their own feelings and thoughts
while configuring learning issues, have also developed creativity. They are quite
successful at brainstorming activities when alternative ideas need to be created. They
have strength in imagination, perception, identifying problems and evaluating them from
different perspectives. However, they have hard times while choosing an option, or
making decisions; at times, they are inadequate in taking advantage of learning
opportunities (Aşkar & Akkoyunlu, 1993; Kolb, 1984, 1999; Ridin & Rayner, 1998).

ASSIMILATING Abstract conceptualization and reflective observation are in the

foreground for individuals with such learning style. They are more interested in abstract
concepts and ideas. Plan making and problem-solving skills are high. However, they are
insufficient in practical studies and learning behaviors concerning practical values and
ideas. These individuals also choose to receive the information from experts and see
teachers as the most important source of information. Since they usually tend to learn
by listening and observing, they are better with the traditional learning approaches
(Aşkar & Akkoyunlu, 1993; Kolb, 1984, 1999).

CONVERGING Individuals with converging learning style use abstract

conceptualization and active experiential learning paths. With these individuals, problem
solving, logical analysis and deductive reasoning skills are higher. They are often
interested in technical issues and are not attracted to social and interpersonal activities.
They are quite good at exam questions with single answers, and they are more
interested in the practical parts of ideas. They prefer to reach the correct information by
trial and error and by applying what they learn, and they often require feedback from the
teacher (Aşkar & Akkoyunlu, 1993; Kolb, 1984, 1999).

ACCOMMODATING For individuals with accommodating learning style,

capabilities of learning through concrete and active life are in the foreground.
Leadership abilities of these individuals are high and while they are learning they make
use of interpersonal relationships and personal information of individuals rather than
technical analysis. Their curiosity and research motivation are high and since they are
sociable, they can easily communicate with other individuals. They are open-minded
about learning and their capacity to adapt to change is high. If the theory put forth or a
plan is incompatible with the facts, they usually abandon the plan (Aşkar & Akkouyunlu,
1993; Kolb, 1984, 1999). CONCLUSION The present review indicates the prominent
role of personality traits with respect to academic performance that gives answer to the
question why some individuals are academically inclined and others are not in spite
having same intelligence level. It shows that the optimistic view of early researchers
was correct that personality has its relation with academic performance; it is not a mere
assistant of intelligence in determining the academic performance. The w (will factor)
means the willingness of an individual to perform is equally important in determining
academic achievement and it is as important as g (general factor) of intelligence. The
most related personality trait Conscientiousness is the key factor in predicting the
performance of an individual. The research conducted so far statistically support the
correlation and yet there are many key factors to be explored for establishing for direct
relationship.
 Chapter 1

Conceptual Framework

In this research study personality traits have been described under the umbrella
of “Five-Personality-Factor Model”. Though, Big Five have been defined from different
dimensions (Goldberg, 1993). Yet it can be defined precisely as “fairly fixed
characteristic of an individual”. It is an ability of an individual to interact with new
information and novel circumstances (Jung, 1971). Personality traits are relatively
inherent features of the person and usually considered as static (Verma & Sheikh,
1996).

The Big Five characterized by openness to experience, conscientiousness,

extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (McCrae & Costa, 1989; Goldberg, 1993;
Saucier, 1994; Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt, 2002) (See figure 1). The big 5
personality traits According to John & Srivastava (1999), Openness to experience trait is
characterized as intellectually curious, imaginative, hold unconventional beliefs. People
with high score on this trait are likely to be more adventurous, creative and have the
ability to think outside the box. People with low score on this trait are likely to be more
conventional and may struggle with abstract thinking. Conscientiousness is a
personality trait that can be characterized as thoughtfulness, tendency to control
impulse, behave in socially acceptable ways and facilitate goal directed behavior (John
& Srivastava, 1999).

Extraversion is a trait that can be described as friendly, sociable, assertive,

talkative, emotionally expressive and cheerful. Individuals high on this trait have a
tendency to gain energy in social settings and are usually outgoing. Agreeableness
dimension of personality consists of characteristics such as trustworthy, helpful,
altruism, kind, considerate, generous and don’t hesitate to sacrifice their interest (John
& Srivastava, 1999).

Neuroticism dimension of personality refers to those who have tendency to

experience anger, sadness, emotional instability and variety of negative emotions are
frequently observed in people who scored high on neuroticism (John & Srivastava,
1999). In e-learning environment, extroversion and introversion plays a dominant role in
enhancing academic performance of e-learners. E-learning environment can be
considered beneficial for those students who have introverted preferences as there is
no presence of teachers and the fellow students. It can be helpful for these students as
such students rely upon nonverbal communication as compared to verbal
communication (Atashrouz, Pakdaman & Asgari, 2008).

Therefore, personality trait theory is considered as an imperative source of

understanding of individual academic differences in the current study particularly within
the context of e-learning. This study would also helps to explore which prominent traits
of e-learners would predict better academic performance. This research study would
also provide the abundant knowledge for teachers to gain insight of learning differences
of e-learners so that they can gather understanding of students’ behaviors. Hence, the
current study will be beneficial for the instructors to develop and restructure their
courses in a way that suit online requirements and address differing learning styles
(Siddiquei & Khalid, 2017).

The learning style The notion that each student has his/her own ways of
learning is termed as “Learning Style” which is another theoretical framework for current
research study. It can be defined as cognitive, affective, and psychological
characteristics which function as constant indicators of how student learn and respond
to a learning environment (Felder & Spurlin, 2005). The role of individual differences in
learning has been explored in numerous studies in recent years and it has been
accepted widely that learning style has become an imperative for development of
educational processes. It has also been recognized in various researches during past
few decades that learner’s intellectual ability is not the only factor of academic
performance but it also depends on the learner’s preferred learning styles (Kolb, 1984).
As suggested by Felder (1993), that wide variety of instructional methods needs to be
adapted by teachers and instructors in order to accommodate learners’ individual
differences, rather than a single strategy which is not enough for all students.

This research study employs learning style under the notion of Felder and
Silverman’s (1988) learning styles model. It is based on Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory
(Kolb & Kolb, 2005). In Index of Learning Style, Felder and Silverman (1988) provided
four dimensions of learning styles including sensing-intuitive, visual-verbal, active-
reflective and sequential-global (see figure
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This problem focus on this following statement.

1. What are the personality traits of grade 9 students?

2. What are the learning styles of grade 9 students?

3. Is there any significants relationship between their

personality traits and learning styles of grade 9 students?

SIGNIFICANTS OF STUDY

It has been documented in previous researches that personality traits and

learning styles both are somewhat coupled with academic performance. Yet little is
known about the joint relationship of personality trait, learning style and academic
performance. In this study, researcher aimed to bridge the gap by directly investigating
the relationships between personality, learning styles, and academic performance and
hence to enrich the literature. The significant implication of research in this realm,
perhaps, is to explore and examine the relationship between learners’ individual
differences and their academic performance outcomes. This research will benefit
educationist as well as instructors in order to create more efficient and successful
learning environments so that learners with variety of individual differences could be
specifically accommodated.

By investigating personality traits and learning styles within e-learning setting,

outcome of study should help educators, instructors, designers and developers in
improving educational delivery as well as assists to serve the individual needs of e-
learners. The significance of such researches particularly within e-learning settings is
colossal. While Oblinger, Barone and Hawkins (2001) suggested that college students
are enormously increasing while university campuses are insufficient with reference to
space in order to accommodate the rising numbers of student population. It is
considered as prime advantage of e-learning settings that increasing number of
students can be accommodated with no structural modifications. It will also help to
enhance students’ enrollment by overcoming the barriers of physical proximity. It will
also facilitate educational psychologists, developers and instructional practitioners to
locate new ways of administering curriculum and develop course design effectively.

With particular reference to e-learning, it is a dire need to explore such areas of

personality trait and learning style for enhancing e-learners performance. It is crucial to
understand the significance of such researches for the promotion of different types of
learning environments. With the growing number of population of e-learners, it is also
significant to establish a connection between learners’ personality traits and their
learning styles to a particular environment, which might have remarkable influence on
student academic performance. This will also be beneficial for institutions as it will not
only boost student satisfaction and increased enrollment as well. This study will provide
supplement in existing literature and a significant addition in the knowledge with regard
to examine the relationship between personality traits, learning style and academic
performance of e-learners in particular.
SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

This study focuses on personality traits and learning styles of the students of
lagao annex in grade 9. The selection of respondent's are only limited since there are
alot of students in grade 9. The research is designed to have through knowledge of
personality traits and learning styles and how does this problem affect their learning on
English

Definition of terms

Personality traits- reflect people's characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and

behaviors. Personality traits imply consistency and stability—someone who scores
high on a specific trait like Extraversion is expected to be sociable in different situations
and over time.

Extraversion- is one of the five personality traits of the Big Five personality theory. It

indicates how outgoing and social a person is. A person who scores high
in extraversion on a personality test is the life of the party. They enjoy being with
people, participating in social gatherings, and are full of energy.

Agreeableness- is one of the five personality traits of the Big Five personality theory. A

person with a high level of agreeableness in a personality test is usually warm, friendly,
and tactful. They generally have an optimistic view of human nature and get along well
with others.

Conscientiousness- is a 'Big Five' factor of personality, along with other broad factors
- openness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These factors follow the
lexical approach to personality, which proposes that people naturally create terms for
common traits so that they can describe and discuss them.

Openness- is one of the five personality traits of the Big Five personality theory. It

indicates how open-minded a person is. A person with a high level of openness to
experience in a personality test enjoys trying new things. They are imaginative, curious,
and open-minded.

Learning Styles

Technically, an individual's learning style refers to the preferential way in which

the student absorbs, processes, comprehends and retains information. ...
Individual learning styles depend on cognitive, emotional and environmental factors, as
well as one's prior experience. In other words: everyone's different.
 Chapter 2

Review Related Literature

The Review Related Literature of this study was guided by the big five model for
understanding personality traits whereas learning style was studied under the notion of
Felder and Silverman’s (1988) learning styles model. Previous studies based on the
relationships among Big Five personality traits, learning styles, and academic
performance have been discussed in this section. It has been identified that cognitive
and non-cognitive individual differences in the development of knowledge play a
decisive role (Furham & Chamorro- Premuzic, & McDougall 2003). In several studies
non-cognitive differences e.g. big fiver personality traits as compared to cognitive
differences are explored as better predictors of academic success (e.g., Furham &
Chamorro-Premuzic, & McDougall, 2003; O’Connor & Paunonen, 2007). It has also
been found in several other research studies that academic performance was directly
correlated with personality traits and learning styles (Barchard, 2003; Duff, Boyle,
Dunleavy, & Ferguson, 2004; Noftle & Robins, 2007).

However, there is some disparity in identifying the particular personality traits and
learning styles, which is considered as better predictor of academic performance of
students (Trapmann, Hell, Hirn, & Schuler, 2007). Similarly, numerous researchers
(e.g., Rothstein, Paunonen, Rush, & King, 1994; Trapmann et al., 2007) investigated
the influence of personality traits on affective and cognitive academic performance in
which GPA, state test score, individual score and students’ satisfaction have also been
included. In these researches, it was revealed that big five personality traits plays an
imperative role in enhancing academic performance (O’Connor & Paunonen, 2007;
Trapmann et al., 2007). It has also been identified in prior literature that Big Five
personality traits plays more significant role in order to predict academic performance.
Barchard (2003), Duff et al. (2004), Noftle and Robins (2007) and O’Connor and
Paunonen (2007) have identified that conscientiousness among all the Big Five
personality traits, was considered as most significant trait as well as consistent
contributor in predicting academic performance. Consistently, several other studies was
also established that conscientiousness and GPA was positively associated with each
other (Barchard, 2003; Chamorro-Premuzic & Furham, 2003; Duff et al., 2004; Oswald
et al., 2004; Noftle & Robins, 2007; Laidra, Pullmann, & Allik, 2007).

Moreover, Kappe & van de Flier (2010) have identified that other than
Conscientiousness, another Big Five personality trait such as openness to experience
has also been found as a major contributor in academic performance. Similarly,
Rothstein et al. (1994) revealed that openness is also positively correlated with
classroom performance and GPA as well. In spite of the consistent findings, mix results
have also been explored in several different studies related to extroversion, emotional
Stability and agreeableness, the other three personality traits. In this regard, a negative
relationship was identified between personality traits, such as extroversion, emotional
stability and agreeableness, and academic performance by Furham and Chamorro-
Premuzic (2003). Furthermore, academic achievement for example, GPA was
negatively correlated with emotional instability and extraversion (Furham & Chamorro-
Premuzic, 2003; Duff et al., 2004), Rothstein et al. (1994) explored that agreeableness
have a negative relationship with examination grades. Inconsistent with these studies, it
has been reported that there is no gender differences between openness to experience
and conscientiousness (Costa, Terracciano & McCrae, 2001).

However, gender differences in agreeableness were consistently revealed in

other studies (Weisberg, 2011; Costa, Terracciano & McCrae, 2001). Hence, this study
sought to explore the relationships between Big Five and academic performance in view
of the above mentioned inconsistent results of the Big Five personality traits and
academic performance. Numerous studies like Kolb (1984), Felder and Silverman
(1988) and Vermunt (1998) have explored learning styles in diverse ways and classified
learning styles in various ways in their studies. For instance, Kolb (1984) categorized
learners into four groups. These are: assimilators, accommodators, divergers, and
convergers (Kolb & Kolb, 2005).

However, prior researches on various learning style models constantly explored

student learning styles and revealed that there are different ways in which students
learn and behave in courses that could match or mismatch with their particular learning
styles (Liu & Graf, 2009). As shown by Felder and Silverman (1988) students enrolled in
engineering courses tend to be more sensors and as a result earned lower grade in
their respective courses as compare to tutors. Similarly, it has been found that as
compared to reflect
Chapter 3

Research Design

This was a predication study, intended to identify variables that forecast student
performance in distance education and to maximize “the correlation between the
predictor variables and the criterion” (Borg & Gall, 1989, p. 584). The purpose of a
predictive study is to determine the ability of an independent variable(s) to predict the
values of one, dependent or criterion variable. For the purpose of this study, the
relationship between several independent variables, (a) personality type and (b)
learning style on the criterion variable, performance in distance learning, was studied.
Because the independent variables were being examined both in isolation and jointly, a
simple linear regression was used as well as a multiple linear regression. Both
independent variables are related to the predictor variable but are uncorrelated with one
another (Bagui, 2000). The assumption for a normal distribution and a potential sample
size of 75 students should minimize threats to validity, reliability, and generalizability
(Lomax, 2001).

Research locale

This research was conducted in Lagao National Highschool Annex in Prk.

Malipayon Barangay San isidro in General Santos City Philippines. The Highschool
offers associate and applied associate degree, as well as vocational and technical
programs, An dual enrollment opportunities for Highschool students continuing
education programs, and remediation calsses. LNHSA is considered a small community
Highschool with an average of more than 500 student in the whole campus the
institution currently offers learning classes across.

Research sampling method

The researchers used Random sampling methods.

Research Instrument

The researchers used survey and one on one interview to get and gathered the
data needed.

Data Gathering Procedure

First, the researchers ask permission to their adviser to conduct a study about

the Personality Trait and Learning Style of Grade 9 Students in Lagao National

Highschool Annex. Second, after asking pemission the researchers calculated the

population of their respondents. Third, the researchers formulated survey questions that

will give answers to their questions. Then they conducted the study and collected their

needed data. After gathering the data from their respondents, the researchers analyzed

and interpreted the data through research sampling method. Lastly, after, the

researchers come up with particular conclusions and recommendations.