Browsing by Author "Paunonen, Jarno"

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible connection of applicants' self-esteem and gender to their performance in student selection for teacher education. The significance of teacher's personality has grown with working conditions that increasingly demand better social skills. Teachers have reported unusual tiredness and the willingness to quit has become more common. It seems reasonable to consider self-esteem as a protective buffer against the emotional stress these working conditions present for teachers, and therefore the student selection at least shouldn't favor those with whom this protective buffer is low. Self-esteem's connection with student selection for teacher education has not been studied before, but due to prior results regarding the broader benefits of high self-esteem, it was hypothesized to be positively connected to success in student selection. The selection process consists of a theory test and an aptitude test, which were addressed separately and together. In line with prior research, women were hypothesized to be more successful in theory test and men in the aptitude test. This study was a part of the SeSTE research project (Selecting Students for Teacher Education). There were 470 subjects who had participated in the selection process for teacher education in the University of Helsinki. Self-esteem was measured with Rosenberg self-esteem scale as self-assessment. The main method of analyzing was multinomial logistic regression. Gender was examined alongside self-esteem, and the effect of age was controlled. The hypotheses for self-esteem were mostly confirmed with no apparent connection seen with the aptitude test. Gender related hypotheses were confirmed as women were more likely to pass the theory test and men the aptitude test. According to this study the student selection slightly favors applicants with higher self-esteem, but the effect is small. If the hypothesis of high self-esteem as a useful protective buffer for teachers gains more evidence, it might be beneficial according to this study, to consider the possibility of focusing the student selection more to applicants with higher self-esteem.