Objectives of the study:  1. To develop a Personality Development Programme to empower the female teacher trainees. 2. To tryout the Personality Development Programme among female teacher trainees. 3. To develop a training programme to empower female teacher trainees in the following personality traits. a. Assertiveness b. Motivation c. Interpersonal skills d. Leadership e. Decision making 4. To prepare a trainers manual for the personality traits. 5. To design activities for offering training programmes to the female teacher trainees in the personality traits. 6. To prepare trainee’s handouts in the personality traits. 7. To measure the effectiveness of the training programme given to the female teacher trainees in the personality traits.

A total of 215 teacher trainees ( B.Ed.-65, DTE Regular- 50 and DTE Special-100) constituted the sample for the study.

Different tools were used for training in the areas of the selected personality traits, such as, proforma for verbal and non-verbal behaviour, assertiveness scale, motivation rating scale, inter-personal trust scale, personal effectiveness profile, self appraisal exercise, decision making scale, personal quality checklist. Package for Personality Development and Empowerment has been well evolved.

Single group pre-test post-test design was employed for the study.

Statistical techniques, such as, mean, SD, ‘t’, Pearson Product Moment ‘r’, have been employed for data analysis.

Findings of the study are:  The three groups, namely, B.Ed., DTE, and DTE-S have been found to differ significantly in terms of their mean scores on assertive, aggressive and passive behaviours. The mean assertive behaviours of all the three groups were found to differ significantly in the order B.Ed.>DTE-S>DTE. The relative status with respect to mean aggressive behaviour has been found as DTE>DTE-S>B.Ed. The relative status with respect to mean passive behaviour has been found as DTE-S>DTE>B.Ed. The assertive training programme has been reported to be effective. Similarly, the motivation training programme was well conducted. The students could list the attributes of motivated persons, namely, ambitious, assertive, attentive, broad minded, capable, comprehensive, concise, bold, courageous, energetic, dynamic, frank, futuristic, expressive, enthusiastic, ethical, hardworking, honest, impartial, industrious, independent, industrious, independent, innovative, participator, objective, team worker, self confident, wise, straight forward, studious, systematic, tactful, visionary, leader,responsible,purposeful, questioning, proficient, persuasive and trendsetter. The relative status on mean motivation behaviours was found as B.Ed.>DTE>DTE-S. The activities conducted for identification of factors influencing interpersonal skills were found useful. Quite some ideas were pooled from the students for developing interpersonal skills, namely, talkativeness, cheerfulness, easily talking with the stranger, likes to mix with other people, enjoys spending long period of time with others, relaxed and self confident, liked by wide range of people, introduce themselves in a strange social gathering, never avoid others, having numerous friends, enjoys in entertaining people, friendly, seat out the company of others, like social function and social gathering, extrovert, other people think him as a lively person, energetic, enjoys all sorts of social activities and active. B.Ed. and DTE students and B. Ed. And DTE-S students were found to differ significantly in their interpersonal skills in favour of B.Ed. students. Though the mean interpersonal score of DTE students was found higher than that of DTE-S students but this difference was not found significant. In the different dimensions of interpersonal skill, namely, personal ethics, adaptability, tact, credibility, intercommunication, persuasiveness, objectivity, initiative and self discipline the B.Ed. students got superior grade. Except on personal ethics, adaptability, and intercommunication the DTE students got above average grade in all the dimensions. In the case of DTE-S students they got above average grade in all the dimensions except personal ethics and adaptability. Through the activities of leadership training programme the participants were trained on the leadership qualities. They could reasonably list the qualities of leaders. B.Ed. students were found higher in all the three domains of reacting, relating and leading than the DTE students, whereas, the DTE students were reported higher than the DTE-S students. All the sample students could estimate their status on the various attributes of reacting, relating and leading. The activity on the inner structure of a good leader was also found effective. The activities of decision making training programme were also found quite effective. The mean scores of students on post tests were found significantly higher than that of pre-test group-wise and skill-wise. The training programme for personality development to empower female teacher trainees has been found quite effective.