[presented at the National Seminar on Teaching Profession organised by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, June 2002]
This study focuses on the issues related to teachers’ identity and personality in the process of teaching and learning in school or university’s environment. The aim of the study is to investigate whether teacher’s identity and personality give great influence in the process of acquiring knowledge. This means that if the teachers have the acceptable personality cum identity, students can acquire the knowledge better or vice versa. Since most people believe that students get their second biggest influence from the educational institutions, namely the teachers themselves, it is pertinent to look at teachers’ personality and identity. The need to analyse the two important entities becomes higher since students are exposed to lots of social mishaps lately. Questionnaires were used to gauge students’ opinions on teachers’ personality and interviews with selected students and teachers were done at random to tighten the analysis and data. Findings show that students are inclined to study better if they have the so-called teachers with acceptable identity and personality. The reasons that lead to this conclusion are twofold. It is hoped that this study will trigger the sense of awareness for teachers on how and why they are the biggest influence in students’ life.