Abstract
While character strengths have been found to predict educational outcomes beyond broad personality traits and cognitive ability, little is known about their differential contribution to success and positive learning experiences in different school settings. In this study, we use trait activation theory to investigate the relationships of students’ character strengths with achievement, flow experiences, and enjoyment in different learning situations (i.e., teacher-centered learning, individual tasks, and group work). In studying these relationships, we controlled for psychometric intelligence. Secondary school students (N = 255; 46.3% male; mean age = 14.5 years) completed a self-report measure of character strengths, the VIA-Youth (Park and Peterson, 2006b). Cognitive ability was assessed using a standardized intelligence test (PSB-R; Horn et al., 2003) at baseline. Three months later, students completed the Flow Short Scale (Rheinberg et al., 2003) adapted to the three learning situations and indicated their typical enjoyment of these situations. Both the students and their teachers (N = 18; 50% male; mean age = 44.8 years) provided ratings on school achievement in each of the three learning situations. Results indicate that, as expected, (a) certain character strengths (love of learning and perseverance) show consistent relationships with achievement and positive learning experiences (flow and enjoyment) above and beyond cognitive ability across all learning situations, whereas (b) other character strengths show differential trait-outcome relationships (e.g., the character strength of teamwork was predictive of achievement and positive learning experiences in group work). Taken together, these results suggest that different character strengths play a role in different school situations and that their contribution to explaining variance in educational outcomes is incremental to the contribution of cognitive ability.
Highlights
As early as 1940, non-cognitive variables were discussed as important predictors of educational outcomes that could add to the predictive value of cognitive ability (Harris, 1940)
The present study aims at investigating whether students’ character strengths predict both achievement and positive learning experiences in different learning situations over and above cognitive ability
When we assess the full picture of relationships with achievement against previous studies on the role of character strengths for overall school achievement (e.g., Wagner and Ruch, 2015), we find that the strengths of love of learning and perseverance show the strongest and most consistent relationships with achievement across various learning situations beyond the influence of cognitive ability
Summary
As early as 1940, non-cognitive variables were discussed as important predictors of educational outcomes that could add to the predictive value of cognitive ability (Harris, 1940). Much is still unknown about which aspects of students’ learning experiences and performance are influenced by individual differences in cognitive and noncognitive (i.e., personality) traits and the most useful level of analysis (i.e., broader vs narrower traits; see O’Connor and Paunonen, 2007). While previous studies found character strengths to go along with overall school achievement (e.g., Wagner and Ruch, 2015), when controlling for broader personality traits and cognitive ability (Wagner and Ruch, 2020), school does not represent a uniform situation but rather a range of different settings, in which achievement and positive learning experiences might be facilitated by different personality traits. We aimed at studying whether character strengths explain variance in achievement across different learning situations – namely teacher-centered learning, individual tasks, and group work – above and beyond cognitive ability. Given the relevance of positive learning experiences both for overall well-being (e.g., Stiglbauer et al, 2013) and for future achievement (e.g., Engeser and Rheinberg, 2008), we include variables related to wellbeing by studying the relationships of character strengths to the experience of flow and enjoyment in the different learning situations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
