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The selection gap in teacher education: Adverse effects of ethnicity, gender, and socio‐economic status on situational judgement test performance
Author(s) -
Bardach Lisa,
Rushby Jade V.,
Klassen Robert M.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/bjep.12405
Subject(s) - psychology , ethnic group , conscientiousness , socioeconomic status , regression analysis , moderation , test (biology) , developmental psychology , social psychology , big five personality traits , personality , demography , population , paleontology , machine learning , sociology , biology , anthropology , computer science , extraversion and introversion
Background Situational judgement tests (SJTs) measure non‐cognitive attributes and have recently drawn attention as a selection method for initial teacher education programmes. To date, very little is known about adverse impact in teacher selection SJT performance. Aims This study aimed to shed light on adverse effects of gender, ethnicity, and socio‐economic status (SES) on SJT scores, by exploring both main effects and interactions, and considering both overall SJT performance and separate SJT domain scores (mindset, emotion regulation, and conscientiousness). Sample A total of 2,808 prospective teachers from the United Kingdom completed the SJTs as part of the initial stage of selection into a teacher education programme. Methods In addition to SJT scores, the variables gender (female vs. male), ethnicity (majority group vs. minority group), and home SES background (higher SES status vs. lower SES status) were used in the analyses. Regression models and moderated regression models were employed. Results and conclusions Results from the regression models revealed that gender effects (females scoring higher than males) were restricted to emotion regulation, while ethnicity effects (ethnic majority group members scoring higher than ethnic minority group members) emerged for SJT overall scores and all three domains. Moderated regression modelling results furthermore showed significant interactions (gender and ethnicity) for SJT overall scores and two domains. Considering the importance of reducing subgroup differences in selection test scores to ensure equal access to teacher education, this study’s findings are a critical contribution. The partially differentiated results for overall vs. domain‐specific scores point towards the promise of applying a domain‐level perspective in research on teacher selection SJTs.