An analysis of music teacher effectiveness and employment selection criteria

This study sought to improve overall music teacher effectiveness through the selection and employment of effective music teachers. The problem in this study was to identify, from a population of music teachers, effective music teachers who possess personal traits or success criteria that were different from those of non-effective music teachers.The Adult Personality Inventory (API), published by MetriTech, Inc., was administered to 129 music teachers from seven school districts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin representing large and small, urban and rural, and elementary and unit districts. The personality test results of 109 subjects were determined to be valid for data analysis.Via interviews, music supervisors/administrators determined personality characteristics they considered to be "most desirable" and "least desirable" when searching for each of the following music teaching positions: elementary general/choral, elementary instrumental, secondary general/choral, and secondary instrumental. The music supervisors/administrators ranked ordinally each music teacher by teaching level and then by area as listed above.ANOVA and t-tests were used to determine significance and to identify correlations among variables.Music supervisors identified several personality characteristics that were unique to the teaching positions used in the study.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio