Bett, Stacy Cherono2024-10-082024-10-082019-06https://repo.pacuniversity.ac.ke/handle/123456789/4843People’s personalities significantly influence how they conduct their work. Specifically, studies have shown that instructors teach based much more on their teaching preferences than stipulated teaching guidelines. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between an instructor’s personality coupled with relevant training, and its influence on their work. With the advent of technology that now facilitates distance learning, this study sought to investigate the extent to which instructors’ preferences for online or face-to-face modes of teaching are a function of their personalities. The geographical scope of the study was the University of Nairobi, and the total available population was 33 faculty members who teach using both face-to-face and online modes. The study was guided by the Big Five Theory of Personality and the Role Theory of Leadership as its theoretical framework. It adopted a descriptive approach using a survey research design. Quantitative data was collected using questionnaires. Since the population was small, a census was taken and 19 respondents responded. After data analysis using Cost And McCrae’s standardized tool for personality testing, the findings showed that personality seemed to have little or no influence on the instructional leader’s preference for specific modes of teaching, and a majority of the respondents preferred blended modes of teaching as opposed to purely face-to-face or purely online modes. Finally, all the respondents stated that they had received training from the institution to facilitate online classes. However, 71% said that they had received 50-100% training 21% said that they had received 20-50% training, and the remaining 21% claimed 10-20% training. Further, the respondents attributed 58% of the training they had received to the institution, 21% to their colleagues, and 21% to themselves. The study’s recommendations were that national bodies regulating higher education teaching practices should research, analyze and set in place appropriate policies as the most effective ways of training university lecturers to facilitate emerging modes of teaching, other institutions of higher learning should conduct activities such as benchmarking in UoN as well as other well-performing schools, and universities and other higher learning institutions should also encourage internal training where lecturers who have knowledge on how to facilitate various modes of teaching can teach those who are still growing in the area of online learning facilitation.enThesis