Personality Traits and Teaching Commitment Among Pre-Service Teachers: Teaching Motivation as a Mediator

With the HEXACO model of personality, this study examined the relationship between HEXACO traits (i.e., honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) and teaching commitment among 2031 Chinese pre-service teachers. The results show that all HEXACO traits positively predicted teaching commitment, with extraversion and agreeableness being the most pronounced predictors. Also, this study investigated whether teaching motivation, including intrinsic motivation, altruistic motivation, and extrinsic motivation, could explain the relationship between HEXACO traits and teaching commitment. The results supported the mediational role of teaching motivation, with intrinsic motivation showing the strongest mediational effect. For extraversion and openness to experience, a full mediation model was supported, while for the other four HEXACO traits, a partial mediation model was validated. The theoretical and practical implications of this study for teacher education are discussed.