Personality testing to screen out teachers who lack social skills or cannot cope under pressure. Will this ever happen in Canada? I hope so.

Trainee teachers face personality tests to weed out those who lack social skills or cannot cope under pressure.Students will be asked to fill in questionnaires before they can begin training courses in a drive to boost the caliber of staff.The tests are designed to gauge applicants’ abilities to manage their time, relate to pupils and handle pressure and criticism.

Toughening up: New tests being introduced this September will attempt to weed out trainee teachers who lack the necessary social skills or cannot cope under pressure

The new checks – introduced from September – are part of an overhaul of teacher training with the aim of raising standards in state education.An estimated £68million is spent each year by the Government on training teachers who quickly move on to other jobs.Officials said ‘easily measurable competencies’ are already assessed during recruitment to teacher training courses.

But the ‘more difficult competencies’ which are ‘also deemed essential to becoming a successful teacher’ are not covered.From September, training providers will be supplied with an approved list of ‘non-cognitive assessments’ to use during the recruitment process. The tests will be used to ‘complement’ existing procedures such as interviews and group exercises.

Taking a stand: Other measures announced by Education Secretary Michael Gove (above) include a toughening up of literacy and numeracy tests for trainee teachers
Tests used in trials assessed criteria such as interpersonal skills, time management and emotional resilience, including the ability to ‘perform when under pressure’, ‘keep emotions in check’ and ‘handle criticism and learn from it’.

Sample questions included ‘Which of the following best describes you?’, with candidates asked to tick one of six boxes on a spectrum between ‘methodical’ and ‘flexible’.

About 35,000 students are accepted on to teacher training courses each year, but around one-third drop out of teaching soon afterwards. While some quit for personal reasons, many are simply ill-suited to the job.Earlier this year, the Department for Education demanded ‘better testing of candidates’ interpersonal skills’ before teacher training.Following trials, the Government this week announced that screening tests will be available to all recruiters for training courses.

While the personality tests will not be compulsory, most course leaders are expected to insist their candidates take them.Ofsted will for the first time be inspecting teacher training providers for the quality of their selection processes.

Further measures already announced by Education Secretary Michael Gove include a toughening up of literacy and numeracy tests for trainee teachers.Ministers are concerned that existing tests are too easy and allow trainees with a poor mastery of English and maths to slip through.

A spokesman for the Government’s Teaching Agency said: ‘By screening applicants for a range of attributes and behavioural competencies that are considered essential to good teaching, we will reinforce what is already a rigorous selection process.’

He added that the testing would ‘help select and recruit the most suitable, high-quality trainee teachers’.