Individual Characteristics of Teacher Education Students: Re-Examining the Negative Selection Hypothesis

Teachers' individual characteristics, such as cognitive and academic abilities, interests, and personality, are considered relevant for their professional competencies, successful teaching, the development of students' competencies, and student achievement. This study re-examined the idea that the teaching profession attracts people with rather unfavorable characteristics, differentiating teaching degrees and study majors. Using extensive data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; Starting Cohort First-Year Students; N = 8952) and multinomial logistic regression, the study investigated whether students' individual characteristics influence the choice of (a) study programs (teacher education vs. other) and (b) teaching degrees (primary and special vs. lower secondary vs. upper secondary education/Gymnasium). The empirical results showed that individual characteristics predict the choice of study programs and teaching degrees and that it is crucial to take into account teacher education students' heterogeneity when investigating teacher education and the teaching profession.