Identifying expert teachers of students with emotional and behavioral difficulties.: Does personality contribute to a teacher's X-Factor?

Abstract

As a consequence of the global trend towards more inclusive types of education, an increasing number of students with special educational needs are educated in regular primary schools. A specific challenge for regular primary school teachers is the growing number of students with emotional and behavioral difficulties (EBD). Many teachers are lacking pedagogical and/or didactical skills to act adequately in complex classroom situations while teaching students with EBD. More knowledge is required about how to identify teachers who are able to teach students with EBD effectively and what characterizes them. To this end, teacher personality, teacher behavior, and perceptions of teaching abilities of regular school teacher were studied using multiple methods. The results provide three main insights: 1) Evaluations of a teacher’s ability to teach students with EBD by teachers themselves and their peers (fellow teachers, head teachers, special needs support teachers) are reliable sources for identifying expert teachers of students with EBD as these match evaluations by professional observers, 2) Expert teachers of students with EBD master each generic teaching competency and demonstrate significantly higher levels of the teaching domains of ‘Safe and stimulating learning climate’, ‘Intensive and activating teaching’, ‘Teaching learning strategies’, and ‘Learner engagement’ compared to less effective teachers, 3) There is no evidence indicating that personality measures can help assess a teacher’s quality in teaching students with EBD.