High School Headmasters’ Evaluations of Teachers Trained at Universities and Theological Colleges

In the present study religious high school headmasters were requested to compare theological (yeshiva) teacher training college graduates with university teacher training department graduates on five significant factors, namely, feelings towards students, moral, national and Zionist values, level of religious observance, pedagogic skills and headmasters’ preferences. The yeshiva graduates were rated by the headmasters to be superior on the religio-social factors of feelings towards students, moral, national and Zionist values and level of religious observance. On the other hand, university graduates were adjudged by the headmasters to have significantly superior pedagogic skills. Regarding the last factor — headmasters’ preferences — the religious high school headmasters significantly preferred to employ teachers who graduated from yeshiva teacher training colleges rather than employ university trained teachers. This preference was explained in the light of a trend towards religious extremity apparent within the religious sector of the Israeli population resulting in religious high school headmasters viewing religio-social factors as being more important than professional skills for high school teachers.