Personality traits and creativity among pre-service teachers of public universities in Nigeria

Personality traits and creativity among pre-service teachers of public universities in Kwara state in Nigeria is the focus of the study. Using a descriptive survey of the correlational type, 586 respondents were proportionately selected. The Big-Five personality traits by John & Srivastava (1999) was adopted for data collection. Out of the 586 copies of a questionnaire administered, 455 were retrieved; while 357 were adequate for data analysis. The Pearson (r) statistics and Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) was used to analyze the data collected. The findings indicated that there was no significant relationship between extraversion(r = 0.036), neuroticism (r = 0.087) and creativity; but positive relationship exists between agreeableness and creativity (r = 0.142); conscientiousness and creativity (r = 0.128) and openness and creativity (r = 0.318). The Big-Five personality traits are jointly predictors of creativity, but only openness independently predicts creativity; while extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism did not predict creativity. Therefore, teachers‘ education should be targeted towards identifying their personality traits and how they can be harnessed for creativity oriented educational development