A Guide to Conscientiousness in Education

• In Event: Psychosocial Skills in the 21st Century: Theory, Research, and Applications

Abstract

Conscientiousness, describing one’s level of organization and efficiency, is the personality domain most strongly associated with academic performance. Conceptually and empirically, they are similar but distinct to other important drivers of educational success, such as grit and time management. In this session we explore the main issues associated with the conceptualization, measurement, and the applications of conscientiousness in education.

In the theoretical investigations into conscientiousness, many slightly different models have been proposed to describe conscientiousness and its constituent components (or facets). We review the main theoretical models of conscientiousness and conceptually synthesize the most common occurring facets across the models. Here, we identify eight facets that may be fundamental in the conceptualization of conscientiousness. We find that dutifulness, order, and deliberation are the most commonly occurring facets and their definitions are relatively consistent across the models. On the other hand, there is less of a consensus on the definition and the presence of the other facets across the models. None of the theoretical models included all eight of the potential facets and thus a unified model of conscientiousness may be important for future theoretical and empirical development.

Furthermore, we outline how the conscientiousness/academic achievement association can differ depending on the various factors related to how conscientiousness is measured. Namely, the strength of the conscientiousness/academic achievement association can differ when conscientiousness is measured at the broad domain versus at the constituent facet level, an issue which is otherwise known as the bandwidth-fidelity debate. The relationship with academic outcome can also differ when conscientiousness is self-rated versus observer-rated. More recently, the importance of measuring both the teacher conscientiousness and the student conscientiousness has been of rising research interest as studies indicate that teacher conscientiousness also predicts student educational outcomes as does student conscientiousness.

The potential application of the measurement of conscientiousness in education are various. This includes in large-scale multi-country comparison studies. For example, Program of International Student Assessment included items related to conscientiousness in 2012, allowing for cross-cultural comparisons associated with academic ability. Within higher education, uses of referee-ratings of applicant’s personality to inform selection into undergraduate or postgraduate study have also been explored.

As with any other construct measurement and its applications, an accurate conceptualization and assessment procedures are fundamental. Given the common issues associated with standard rating-scale assessments of conscientiousness, we outline alternative methods for its measurement: forced-choice assessments, anchoring vignettes, and situational judgment tests. Lastly, given the research indicating that conscientiousness changes with time, we consider whether students’ conscientiousness can be enhanced, thereby increasing their academic performance. In summary, this session outlines a myriad of issues associated with conscientiousness and its conceptualization, measurement, and applications in education.

Authors

• Lisa E. Kim, The University of Sydney

• Arthur Poropat, Griffith University

• Carolyn Elizabeth MacCann, The University of Sydney