Choosing future teachers: can we forecast competence?

Whatever the balance of theory and practice, the effectiveness and impact of initial teacher education must depend on the interplay of the quality of the teacher education programme and the calibre of each trainee teacher. However, there appears to be little by way of an evidence base for effective recruitment of trainees, individual providers basing their practices on tradition, opinion and administrative expediency. In England, both recruitment and retention of ‘able and committed’ teachers are policy priorities, while the driving criterion in education currently is: ‘does it work?’ It is therefore important that providers seek to select trainee teachers who will indeed show commitment to the profession as well as to the ‘effective’ teaching of children. This small-scale study was funded by a grant from the Teacher Training Agency. It investigates one institution’s practices in recruiting postgraduates for a teacher education course, by comparing assessments of trainees’ performance at pre-course interview and, at the end of the course, in the classroom. The relationship between these assessments will be explored and the implications of findings discussed. However, it is acknowledged that many teacher educators will also wish to step outside the ‘effectiveness’ paradigm to engage their students more deeply with philosophies, theories and values, and to develop them not merely as reflective, but also as critically informed, practitioners. Identifying such capacity in future teachers within a results-driven culture remains a challenge for teacher educators