Analysis of Certain Aspects of Teaching Ability

Abstract

MANY STUDIES have been made of gradu ates of teacher training curricula to determine their success as teachers. These studies have been concerned in one way or another with the measurement and evaluation of teaching success. Such evaluation is of considerable inte rest be cause of the importance of the teacher in the en vironment of the child. Baxter (6) points out: It is no longer enough that the teacher be the possesser of knowledge. Today s teacher must be a 'social engineer', capable of setting up a provocative environment for children's learning, charting the course of each individual child through the ever-changing social relationships in which he is involved and assisting each pupil to grow in his understanding of himself and others. Considering this role of the teac he r, it can be readily realized that it is of greatest importance to secure the best possible teachers for our schools. Teacher training institutions are confronted not only with the problem of selecting those can didates who show the promise of becoming successful teachers, but also the problem of providing those curricular and extra-curricular activities which will aid those candidates when they have entered the training program. Evalu ation of teaching efficiency and identification of the factors which contribute to teaching success are important in both the selection and training of candidates. Evaluation of teaching success has been ap proached in many different ways. One approach has been to ask students to list traits or charac teristics of the teacher liked most and the teacher liked least. Another approach has been to measure certain characteristics of pro spective teachers in training and to correlate these measures with various estimates of suc cess obtained after they had been taught.. A third approach has been to study good and poor teach ers at the time they are teaching for the purpose of noting qualities or procedures associated with success.