Investigating the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Metacognitive Awareness Among Secondary School Teachers: A Gender-Based Study

This correlational quantitative study used stratified random sampling to collect data from 127 secondary school teachers (59 males, 68 females) in Lahore through the Big Five Inventory and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory. Statistical analysis revealed significant gender differences in personality traits, with female teachers scoring higher in four of the five traits (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism). In contrast, male teachers scored significantly higher only in Openness to Experience. The study found a strong positive correlation between Openness to Experience and metacognitive awareness across all participants (r=0.677), with an even stronger correlation among male teachers (r=0.749), while Neuroticism demonstrated a significant negative relationship with metacognitive awareness, particularly among male teachers (r=-0.372). The findings suggest that personality traits, especially Openness to Experience and Neuroticism, play important roles in teachers' metacognitive awareness, with notable gender-based variations in these relationships, and male teachers exhibited slightly higher overall metacognitive awareness compared to female teachers. However, this difference was not statistically significant. These results have implications for teacher development programs, suggesting that promoting intellectual curiosity and Openness to new ideas may enhance metacognitive capabilities. At the same time, emotional intelligence training could benefit teachers with higher neuroticism scores, leading to recommendations for gender-specific mentoring programs and customized metacognitive awareness training to capitalize on teachers' personality strengths and address potential challenges in educational settings.