Suitability for teaching: Assessing the potential to become a teacher
Recently, president of the NSW Council of Deans of Education introduced a personality assessment for student teachers. Starting from 2016, they have made it mandatory for students to cross an extra hurdle when offered an entry into teaching degrees. In the past, any one who had the academic cut off would easily be offered an entry into teaching degrees. However, how do you measure a person’s interest, desire or passion for being a teacher simply from high school grades?
The president of the NSW Council of Deans of Education, Chris Davison, said the assessments are equivalent to those undertaken for the army by “weeding out candidates” unsuitable to teach before they begin with their degrees. It was implemented because students who were undertaking teaching degrees with poor communication or behavioural issues.
During the past summer as a part time job, I taught at a primary school and came across teachers who admitted they didn’t even like children — yet none of them were inclined to change careers and consider this to be normal. I found this highly disturbing as these teachers are being paid to teach when they’re not passionate about their jobs. A model created by Bulger, Mohr & Walls (2002) came up with the Four Aces of Effective Teaching and there is no doubt that one of the them is Enthusiasm. He quotes that “if you hate to teach it, your students will hate to learn it”.
Although some jobs may require minimal passion, as for education, teaching as a profession is central to the nation’s knowledge capital and productivity. Therefore the selection of these candidates should not only be based on their academic performance. Thus I believe that this new implementation of personality test could truly filter out people who are not passionate about their job as a teacher.
Throughout high school, I’ve had teachers who honestly could care less about their job. For a 4000 word extended essay component of the International Baccalaureate Program, my assigned advisor and mentor — who also happened to be my psychology teacher, spent minimal effort in helping me with this long-term project I had. As I helplessly witnessed all my friends who had great mentors give valuable advice, the only thing my mentor was able to contribute was a spelling mistake in the last sentence of my conclusion.
Thus I strongly advocate for personality assessments for student teachers. I strongly believe if you are passionate and devoted about being a teacher, the personality assessment should not be a hard hurdle for you to cross. This gives the university an insight into how well you will work with other people, stress management skills and intellectual capabilities that come with being a teacher.
Bulger, S. M., Mohr, D. J., & Walls, R. T. (2002). Stack the deck in favor of your students by using the four aces of effective teaching. Journal of Effective Teaching, 5(2).
NSW Department of Education and Communities, NSW Institute of Teaching, & Board of Studies (NSW) (2012) Great Teaching, Inspired Learning: A Blueprint for Action. Sydney: NSW Department of Education and Communities.
Fiona Lo
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