A REVIEW of the literature on recruitment, guidance, and screening of prospective teachers reveals: (a) that the amount of basic research is meager; (b) that research on teacher recruitment is based largely upon the opinions of students and the experiences of those responsible for recruiting teachers; and (c) that identification of factors useful in guidance and screening has been difficult because of lack of agreement as to what constitutes teaching success. In order to present a fair sample of the efforts in these areas, surveys as well as basic research studies have been included.
Recruitment and GuidanceThose concerned with the recruitment of teachers find it useful to know the attitudes and opinions of those they are trying to interest in teaching. In a sampling study of Indiana high-school students, Richey, Phillips, and Fox (29) found that 45 percent of the total group rated teaching no more desirable than other occupations requiring the same amount of training, and 52 percent of those who definitely did not plan to teach considered teaching less desirable than other such occupations. Only 4 percent of the students who expected to attend college were quite sure they would become teachers; another 11 percent thought they probably would teach. The major reasons cited for not wanting to teach were preference for other work, lack of interest in teaching, and lack of ability for teaching. Considerable agreement existed among all the students regarding the advantages of teaching as an occupation: opportunity to work with young people, opportunity for service, interesting and enjoyable work, and opportunity for intellectual development. Foremost among the disadvantages cited were low salaries and little chance for improvement.Willcox and Beigel (40) suggested that stereotypes, such as "desire to help society" or "teaching is essential work," should not always be accepted as the actual reasons for choosing teaching as an occupation, and that the choice is frequently made because of emotional needs.Ringness (30) indicated that students' attitudes toward the profession were important in their success in the profession. A factor analysis of the interests of men and women who had chosen to teach showed somewhat different results in the two cases; however, interests in working conditions, in people, and in subjectmatter seem to have been generally emphasized. In terms of raw scores, men placed interest in subjectmatter 204 at UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS on March 16, 2015 http://rer.aera.net Downloaded from