An Exploratory Investigation into the Relationship between Self‐Esteem and Teaching Performance in a Group of Student Teachers

Abstract

Abstract This report describes an investigation into the relationship between Self‐Esteem and teaching performance in a group of 174 students (75 men, 99 women) who were attending courses at the Faculty of Education, the University of Birmingham. In the first part of the enquiry, the subjects were administered the Doherty Self‐Esteem Inventory, an adjective check‐list, and two questionnaires which measured psychosomatic symptoms and the stability of the Self‐Concept. This testing session took place at the beginning of the one‐year course of training, before the students went out on their major teaching practice. When the students had completed their teaching practice (which at Birmingham takes place in the Spring term), an assessment schedule was sent out to all the schools to which students of the Faculty of Education had been attached. Teachers who had been most closely involved with the student‐teachers were asked to fill in a questionnaire, based on the Osgood Semantic Differential Technique, which resulted in students being rated for: Lesson Preparation, Classroom Control, Pedagogical Skill, Variability in Teaching Competence, Overall Teaching Competence, Relationships with Children, Integration with Other Members of Staff, Degree of Emotional Stress Experienced during Teaching Practice, Number of Emotional Problems Stemming from Teaching Practice, and Effect of Teaching Upon the Physical Health of the Student. In addition, schools were asked to furnish details about the number of half‐days the student had been absent from teaching practice. One further index concerned performance in the academic component of the PGCE course: on the basis of their academic performance, students were given a rating obtained by summing their grades on course work. It was found that Self‐Esteem as measured by the Doherty Self‐Esteem Inventory, was significantly related to the number of psychosomatic symptoms suffered by the student and the stability of the Self‐Concept. Students with low levels of Self‐Esteem tended to experience more psychosomatic symptoms and possessed a more unstable Self‐Concept. Students of low Self‐Esteem were also rated as less competent generally as teachers, and less‐integrated socially with other members of the staff‐room. Students with low Self‐Esteem seemed to experience a higher degree of stress while teaching, they seemed to encounter more emotional problems stemming from teaching practice, were absent from teaching practice more frequently, and were less successful in the academic component of the PGCE. It was concluded that Self‐Esteem is an important dimension in teaching performance generally, and that PGCE tutors should evaluate their own role in the light of these findings.