Personalise learning by Big Five trait level: scaffold low-conscientiousness students and reduce failure salience for high-neuroticism students¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 6 claims (2 for, 4 mixed) · 4 studies (2 review, 1 quant-synthesis, 1 associational), q2–q4 · 2 of 4 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review proposes using Big Five trait scores as a dimension for personalised learning, varying task elements by degree. Students lower in conscientiousness may need "more structure and scaffolding" such as regular reminders and check-ins, while higher-conscientiousness students may find reminders irritating; high-neuroticism students may benefit from practising public speaking first in less stressful contexts, while high-extraversion students may thrive on it.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Precise, low-cost personality measurement integrated into the learning system to determine each student's trait level

Constraints¶

• The review presents these personalisation ideas as examples and proposals, not as tested interventions; it warns against typological personalisation such as learning styles, which evidence shows does not improve learning

Target Learners¶

• school and university students in digital or classroom learning

Target Learning Goals¶

• optimising engagement, self-regulation, and performance by adapting instruction to individual differences

Affordances¶

• Big Five Traits Continuous Hierarchical Framework

Claims¶

• Conscientiousness is robustly associated with academic performance across primary, secondary, and tertiary education, with openness the next strongest predictor [+M]
• Of the Big Five personality traits, only conscientiousness (r = .22) and openness (r = .13) correlate appreciably with mathematics achievement [+M]
• Neuroticism correlates negatively with achievement overall, most strongly with STEM test scores [~M]
• Conscientiousness correlates more strongly with grades than with standardized test scores, across both language and STEM domains [~M]
• Openness shows larger correlations with achievement in language than in STEM subject domains, a pattern that holds for both grades and test scores [~M]
• Big Five personality factors show few consistent effects on metacognitive judgments in domain-specific tests [~W]

Related Strategies¶

• Secondary-school personality change intervention: teach traits, self-assess, nominate traits, and complete weekly trait-relevant challenges

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Hayley K. Jach, Lisa Bardach, Kou Murayama. (2023). How Personality Matters for Education Research. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09807-4