#767: Contextualizing the Self: AI-Supported Personality Alignment Among Pre-Service Teachers

Personality alignment is the extent to which pre-service teachers (PSTs) gain insight into their personality and engage in self-development for the necessary situational adjustment of their personality dimensions to aid instructional delivery. Grounded in the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and the Theory of Action (Argyris & Schön, 1974), this study investigated the influence of an AI-simulated learning environment (SimNigeria) on PSTs' personality alignment. Pre-service teachers from a Nigerian public university participated in a mixed-methods, randomized matched-subjects post-test design. Findings showed that PSTs who engaged with the AI environment demonstrated significantly higher personality alignment (F (1,73) = 144.63, p < .001, R² = .66). The study points to the potential of AI-simulated environments for expanding PSTs' contextualized self-reflection and situational personality adaptation.