Alternative predictive measures for assessing suitability to teacher education studies

ABSTRACT

Classroom teaching is a demanding and arduous profession, requiring teachers to have a suitable personality to succeed and persevere. However, academic institutions usually determine acceptance based solely on cognitive test scores, despite research indicating the added value of personality measures. This study presents the MESILA personality selection battery, empirically measuring predictive validity to long-term criteria of success in the field of teaching, and its incremental validity beyond cognitive scholastic scores. Teacher education candidates’ scores on both cognitive and personality measures were correlated with success in criteria collected in a longitudinal study over a six-year period, as a student, novice teacher, licensed, and tenured-teacher. The findings show positive significant correlations between the MESILA personality scores for all criteria measured, as opposed to insignificant or negative correlations for cognitive test scores. The contribution of personality measures to teacher education selection batteries increases the likelihood that these candidates will succeed as teachers, affecting teacher retention and perseverance.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative predictive measures
• teacher education studies
• admission tests
• MESILA
• validity of assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Judy Goldenberg

Professor Judy Goldenberg, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at the Talpiot Academic College of Education in Holon and Researcher at The MOFET Institute in Tel-Aviv. Her research centers on evaluation and validity studies of unique educational programs, selection, and assessment of manpower. She developed the MESILA admission tests for teacher education studies, and researched the teaching internship and mentoring program, the program for excellent teachers, and many others. Goldenberg has a PhD in Psychology from Bar-Ilan University, and is a licensed Instructor-Specialist for the Council of Social-Organizational Psychology in the Israeli Department of Health. She is a Senior Research Director for the IDF Research Branch of the Department of Behavioral Sciences.