Personality traits of special education and rehabilitation teachers at work

The efficiency of teachers in no way solely depends on their education, but also on their personality. Teaching comprises more than just having an adequate programme, following the curriculum, offering knowledge, making a good use of time, choosing the right teaching accessories. It is a process in which the relation between the teacher and the pupils represents one of the essential aspects. The teacher does not only act in accordance with his professional competences, but also teaches and educates with his example and his complete personality, which further influences the behaviour, the development of skills and the knowledge of the pupils. In the master’s thesis there were investigated the personality traits of special education and rehabilitation teachers (in further text abbreviated as SRP) and how these were manifested at work. The intention was to establish the presence of certain personality traits of the SRP and to determine their statistical relationship with different aspects of their work with pupils with special needs. Thus, the investigation was based on a questionnaire, the first part of which was intended to discover the personal orientation and the second one to find out how the SRP acted while working with persons with special needs. Ninety-seven SRP took part in the investigation, 97.9% females and 2.1% males. On average, they had worked in educational institutions for 12.2 years (SD = 10.2). At the moment of investigation, they were employed in different programmes for children and adolescents with special needs: 21.6% worked in the special education programme, 23.7% in the adapted programme with a lower learning standard, 4.1% in the adapted programme with an equal learning standard, and 50.5% in the programme with adapted implementation and additional professional aid. The results show that the most distinctive personality traits of the SRP were self-regard, self-actualising values and synergy, whereas the personality traits of self-acceptance, existentiality and acceptance of aggression were the least manifest ones. It was found out that in the area of time competence statistically significant differences in the manifestation of personality traits of the SRP existed with respect to the duration of their work experience, namely the SRP with little or much experience had a significantly higher values of this dimension in comparison with the SRP beginners. No investigated personality trait had a statistically significant connection to the attitude of the SRP to children, yet there existed eight statistically significant connections between the personality traits of the SRP and the manner of their acting in class. The greatest number of correlations (4) existed with the sub-area of consistency. Between the personality traits and the conflict resolution stategies, however, 17 statistically significant connections could be detected. Personality traits were most times significantly connected with retreat strategy (eight statistically significant connections). Of all personality traits, the capacity for intimate contact had the closest connection with the conflict resolution strategies – statistically significant connections with all conflict resolution strategies except confrontation could be detected. It was also found that in the areas of time competence, inner directed supports, spontaneity, self-regard and capacity for intimate contact, there existed statistically significant differences among the SRP confronting stress with different degrees of effectivity. The intention of the master’s thesis was to contribute to a better knowledge of the topic and to encourage the awareness of the importance of their personality in the SRP since this was also reflected in their educational work