Marketing text:

This book combines theory and research from educational and organizational psychology to provide guidance on improving the teacher selection process and, subsequently, educational outcomes for all students. The book identifies the characteristics of effective teachers, analyzes research on selection practices, and examines new approaches to teacher selection, recruitment, and development. The central premise of the book is that improving the effectiveness of teachers and, thus, students educational outcomes can be achieved by making the recruitment and selection process more effective and more efficient. Accordingly, the book describes how to identify and select individuals for the teaching profession who display both strong cognitive attributes (e.g., subject knowledge) and essential non-cognitive attributes such as resilience, commitment to the profession, and motivation for teaching.

Key topics

Given its scope, the book represents an essential reference guide for scholars, educational leaders and policymakers, and graduate students in educational leadership programs, as well as professionals in child and school psychology, educational psychology, teaching and teacher education. 

Robert Klassen is Professor and Chair of the Psychology in Education Research Centre at the University of York, UK, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta in Canada. Klassens research focuses on achievement motivation and the factors that lead to teacher effectiveness. His work on the Teacher Selection Project (TSP) was funded by the European Research Council (2015-2021) and conducted in eight countries. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the topics of motivation, teacher selection, and teacher development. He is a Chartered Psychologist in the UK and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. 

Lisa E. Kim is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Psychology in Education at the University of York, UK. She is also a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) in the UK. She received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Sydney, Australia and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of York for the Teacher Selection Project, funded by the European Research Council Consolidator Grant. Her research interests lie in understanding what makes a great teacher. Specifically, she investigates the roles, assessment and development of teacher non-cognitive characteristics and teacher effectiveness. She achieves this by using interdisciplinary frameworks, and both quantitative and qualitative methods. For more information, please visit lisaekim.com.

1. The importance of selecting the most effective teachers.- 2. Teacher effectiveness.- 3. Predicting teacher effectiveness.- Part II. Research on selection practices: A look at the evidence.- 4. Selection theory and research.- 5. Selection practices in other fields.- 6. Issues and problems in selection.- Part III. Teacher selection: past, present, and future.- 7. Teacher selection: history and current practices.- 8. New approaches to teacher selection.- 9. Implementation of teacher selection methods.- 10. The road ahead: the future of teacher selection practices.