Ingles, Sally. “The Group Assessment Procedure: Predicting Student Teaching Performance.” Journal of Scholastic Inquiry: Education 1, no. 1 (2013): 120-133.
Abstract: many educational reformers presume that teacher quality will improve if teacher preparation programs simply raise standards of academic selection criteria. However, these traditional criteria are poor predictors of student teaching performance. Instead, teacher preparation programs are in need of admission criteria that will identify candidates who are most likely to succeed in student teaching. The Group Assessment Procedure, which measures soft skills, may fulfill that need. As an alternative to the individual interview and a derivative of the assessment center method for selecting managers in the field of business, the Group Assessment Procedure is a 90-minute, simultaneous interview of numerous candidates. Evidence of the Group Assessment Procedure’s validity as a selection tool was limited to teacher candidates attending large public institutions of higher education in both Israel and Utah. The purpose of this study was to validate the Group Assessment Procedure as a viable teacher candidate selection tool at a small, private university in the Midwest. This nonexperimental, predictive validity study examined the relationship between teacher education candidates’ Group Assessment scores and grade point average (GPA) with student teaching performance scores. Findings of this study suggest that Group Assessment Procedure scores are better predictors of student teaching performance scores than GPA at the time of admission. If implemented, these findings will empower teacher education programs to efficiently select teacher education candidates who are most likely to succeed in student teaching.
