The Relationship between Effective Teacher Characteristics and Reasons for Choosing Teaching Profession: Development of an Effective Teacher Inventory

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationshipsbetween the opinions of secondary school teachers about effective teachercharacteristics and their reasons for choosing the teaching profession. In thiscontext, the study first intends to develop a measurement tool to identify effectiveteacher characteristics. The study is of a correlational research type. Data werecollected from three different groups of secondary school teachers. The effectiveteacher characteristics inventory and the choosing teaching profession as a careerscale were used to collect data. The data were analysed using the exploratory andconfirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach Alpha internal consistency analysis andmultiple linear regression. Given the limitations of the study, groups from whichdata were obtained, the results of the analyses have shown that the “EffectiveTeacher Characteristics Inventory” is able to make valid and reliable measurementsfor effective teacher characteristics under four independent scales (e.g., subjectmatter knowledge, teaching skills, personality characteristics and professionaldevelopment). The multiple linear regression has demonstrated that the predictorvariables in the model, subject matter knowledge, personality characteristics, andprofessional development are positive predictors for teaching skills. However,reasons for choosing the profession is not a significant predictor for teaching skillsof teachers.