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Children's behaviors and emotions in small -group argumentative discussion: Explore the influence of Big Five personality factors

Posted on:2010-02-12Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignCandidate:Dong, TingFull Text:PDF
GTID:1445390002982040Subject:Educational Psychology
Abstract/Summary:
The assessment and structure of personality traits and small group learning during classroom discussions are both research fields that have undergone fast development in the past few decades. However, very few studies have investigated the relationship between individual personality characteristics and performance in discussions, especially with younger children. This study examined the influence of the Big Five personality factors on behavioral indicators of children's cognitive and social development during small group collaborative discussions and their attitude toward discussions of this type. Students in four fifth-grade classes were videotaped during multiple sessions of Collaborative Reasoning discussion and completed a questionnaire after each discussion and a survey at the end of the study. Extroversion showed a big influence on how many speaking turns the students were able to get during the discussions. Conscientiousness demonstrated significant prediction on all the measures in the post discussion questionnaire which aims to evaluate how engaged the children were. Emotional Stability showed an interesting interaction effect with gender on the number of talking turns the students made. Openness revealed a significant positive main effect on the students' self-reports of the level of involvement in the discussions. Agreeableness showed significant negative impact on the students' self-rating of how many negative emotions they experienced. These findings contribute to a more balanced view of the role of individual traits and situational factors in determining behavior.
Keywords/Search Tags:Discussion, Personality, Small, Influence
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