Alternative predictive measures for assessing suitability to teacher education studies

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.