Mental Health and Teacher Effectiveness of Pre-Service Biological Science Teachers

The present study aimed to investigate the differential effect of gender and entry level educational qualification on teacher effectiveness and mental health of pre-service biological science teachers; and on the relationship between the variables. The Teacher Effectiveness Scale for Secondary School Teachers and the Mental Health Inventory for Secondary School Teachers, developed by the investigators, were administered on a sample of 464 pre-service biological science teachers, selected on a stratified random basis, from two districts of Tamil Nadu. The data, thus collected, were subjected to statistical analysis (t-test and Pearson product moment correlation) by keeping the hypotheses in mind. The study revealed a differential effect of gender on teacher effectiveness and mental health, the males excelling females in both, while entry level educational qualification has its significant effect only on teacher effectiveness; not on mental health. Significant positive correlation of a substantial degree was found to exist between teacher effectiveness and mental health of the pre-service biological science teachers in the total sample as well as all the sub-samples considered in the study. Neither gender nor the entry level educational qualification was found to be decisive in discriminating the sub-samples on the basis of the correlation between teacher effectiveness and mental health.