Personality traits as an aspect of teacher quality in teaching students with behavioural problems

This study aimed at validating a method for selecting expert teachers of students with behavioural problems. Participants were Dutch primary school teachers, head teachers and special needs support teachers. Data were gathered through an observation instrument developed for the benefit of the study, a self-efficacy scale and a nomination procedure. Factor-, reliability-, descriptive-, correlation- and sensitivity analyses were performed. Significant positive correlations were found between the instruments, indicating that these measure related but not identical dimensions of teacher quality in teaching students with behavioural problems. Via application of selection criteria, 8 expert teachers were selected.