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Teacher empathy is an essential part of teacher professional role, related to various student outcomes. Research have shown that women are more empathetic than men. However, when personality traits or gender roles are included into regression models, gender no longer predicts empathy. Research have pointed to agreeableness and expressiveness as the strongest correlates of empathy among personality traits and gender roles respectively, but these determinants of empathy are still rarely studied in teachers. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the role of agreeableness and expressiveness in the relationship between gender and empathy on a sample of preservice subject teachers. Two serial mediation models with gender as a predictor, agreeableness and expressiveness as mediators, and empathic concern and perspective taking as criterion variables were tested. Results showed that agreeableness and expressiveness mediated the relationship between gender and empathy. Significant serial mediation effects showed that female preservice teachers reported greater agreeableness, which had a positive effect on expressiveness, which then had a positive effect on empathic concern and perspective taking. Our study indicates that a differentiated approach to empathy training should be used with different groups of preservice teachers, particularly with those who report lower agreeableness and expressiveness. Nastavnička empatija važan je dio profesionalne uloge nastavnika i povezana je s brojnim ishodima kod učenika. Istraživanja pokazuju da su žene empatičnije od muškaraca, ali rod prestaje biti prediktorom empatije nakon što se u regresijske modele uključe osobine ličnosti ili rodne uloge. Ugodnost i ekspresivnost pokazale su se najsnažnijim korelatima empatije među osobinama ličnosti odnosno rodnim ulogama, no te su determinante empatije još uvijek rijetko istražene kod nastavnika/ca. Stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja ispitati ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije na uzorku studenata/tica nastavničkog smjera različitih fakulteta. Testirana su dva serijalna medijacijska modela s rodom kao prediktorom, ugodnošću i ekspresivnošću kao medijatorima te aspektima empatije kao kriterijskim varijablama. Rezultati su potvrdili medijacijsku ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije. Značajni učinci serijalne medijacije pokazali su da su buduće nastavnice iskazale veću ugodnost što je imalo pozitivan učinak na ekspresivnost, a to je potom imalo pozitivan učinak na empatičnu brigu i zauzimanje tuđe perspektive. Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju na potrebu za diferenciranim pristupom treninzima empatije s različitim skupinama budućih nastavnika/ca, posebno s onima koji imaju manje izraženu ugodnost i ekspresivnost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation, skills and professional identity of future teachers develop during their initial teacher education. The aim of this research is to assess the differences between first-year and fifth-year student teachers on a number of personality and motivational variables that are indicative of their approaches to learning, using a cross-sectional design. The participants were 217 first-year and 109 fifth-year student teachers from three Croatian universities. The questionnaire measured personality dispositions, self-descriptions, achievement goals, motivation, learning strategies and perceived autonomy support in learning. The results showed that final-year student teachers displayed more conscientiousness and self-efficacy, and less avoidant goal orientations, extrinsic motivation and surface learning compared to first-year student teachers, indicating final-year students’ more adaptive and proactive approach to learning. The observed differences could be a result of maturation processes and/or the effects of teacher studies that support the development of more adaptive patterns of learning and self-beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study presents results founded upon the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale validation and the relations between personality traits and motivation for teaching in Croatia. A sample of 374 first-year preservice teachers from three universities participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis of the items comprising the Croatian version of the FIT-Choice scale provided support for its construct validity following the omission of six items with low factor loadings. Personality dimensions of the five-factor model provided a set of theoretically meaningful relations with the specific motivational factors determining the choice of teaching profession. In line with previous studies, our results showed that personality traits better predicted intrinsic motivation compared to extrinsic motivation. Two interpersonal dimensions, extraversion and agreeableness, were significant predictors of intrinsic career value, but also of satisfaction with the choice of this profession. Extraversion also predicted ability, whereas agreeableness demonstrated positive relations with social utility value motivations for a teaching career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]