Characteristics of Unfamiliar People Personality in the Assessments of Observers with Different Teaching Experience

The study analyzes the professional ability of teachers to accurately perceive and evaluate the student’s personalities. Teachers with varying levels of professional experience (1–4 years and 5 years and above) as well as individuals without teaching experience were recruited for this study. Video recordings of the behavior of six posers (three women and three men) during an interview were used as stimuli. From the video recordings, fragments lasting 1 minute were extracted, containing the poser’s speech and their responses to the interviewer's questions. The audio track in the video clips was removed. Participants, both with and without pedagogical experience, evaluated the posers using a specially designed semantic differential that included 25 scales. These scales describe various aspects of personality as self-regulation, organizational and communication skills, empathy, and more. Prior to this evaluation, participants had been assessed using the same semantic differential scales. Subsequently, they were asked to rate, on a ten-point scale, the success of their current or potential professional activity as a teacher in high school, college, and university. The forecast of potential teaching activities was also conducted in relation to the posers being assessed. The results of the study in all groups showed that the mean scores on the scales did not differ significantly. The method of semantic universals made it possible to identify the characteristics of each of the posers. The sets of semantic universals varied, but participants with different professional backgrounds highlighted different sets of characteristics. However, a number of characteristics were consistently emphasized in all groups. A similar factor structure was obtained, containing four common factors: factor 1 “responsiveness”, factor 2 “discipline”, factor 3 “activity” and factor 4 “stress resistance”, i.e. we can say that the perception of an unfamiliar poser by all individuals is based on the same latent variables. However, factor 4 “stress resistance” has the greatest weight in the group of teachers with extensive teaching experience (5 years and more).

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