Verbal Ability and Teacher Effectiveness

Abstract

Critics of traditional teacher education programs have suggested that verbal ability along with subject knowledge is sufficient for measuring good teaching. A small group of research studies is called upon to support this contention. This article reviews these studies, analyzes the role of verbal ability in teaching, and presents research examining the relationship of teachers’ verbal ability and teacher effectiveness. Research results indicate that for acceptable, good, very good, and outstanding teachers, there is no significant correlation between verbal scores and expert assessment of teacher effectiveness. However, weaker teachers have lower average verbal scores. This research and logical analysis suggest that educators should take verbal ability into account, but due to the wide range of scores among good to excellent teachers, it is inadvisable to use single measures of verbal ability to measure or predict teacher effectiveness. The authors provide an alternative system for teacher selection.