An Inquiry into the Self-Evaluation of Star Teacher Characteristics Necessary for Successful Urban Teaching

Abstract

This study examines the degree of agreement between three Haberman Foundation-trained facilitators’ interviews and pre-service teachers’ self-evaluations of behavioral attributes associated with successful urban teaching. Using a quasi-experimental design research approach, data for this investigation was collected from 17 subjects who are all pre-service teacher candidates enrolled in an urban, metropolitan, co-educational research university. The Star Teacher Selection Interview and the Urban Teacher Behavioral Self-Evaluation Assessment served as the assessment instruments. Overall, findings revealed that the trained interviewers rated the pre-service teacher participants much lower on many of the behavioral attributes associated with successful urban teaching than did the subjects themselves.