The purpose of our study was to investigate the relationship between altruistic caring and student teacher competencies in a diverse sample of pre-service teachers in Southeastern United States. Caring in the purest form is known as altruism, and can be described as “behavior motivated by concern for others or by internalized values, goals, and self-rewards rather than by the expectation of concrete or social rewards, or the desire to avoid punishment or sanctions.” Additionally, the researchers determined that there are four main theories of the development of altruism, which was supported by the researchers’ cross-cultural studies over the past decade (UK, US, Korea, Uzbekistan), and which added to existing findings. The four main theories which contribute to the development of altruistic caring include (a) biological; (b), social learning; (c) cognitive; and (d) spiritual-religious factors.

      Social Learning Theory suggests that individuals learn by watching the social world around them, mimicking behaviors and gaining a sense of the world. Social learning occurs constantly, as individuals’ learn from their environments (e.g., family life, authority figures, social norms). Learning, in turn, becomes internalized and becomes part of individuals’ social and psychological compass through which they view and experience the world. In many parts of the world, teachers spend a significant amount of time with their students, sometimes more so than their own families, and thus have the chance to influence and model pro-social and caring behaviors, which may play a significant role in students’ lives as they become adult members of society. Based on this premise and previous studies, we initiated the present study.

      In the present study, we aimed to examine the psychometric properties of our instrument, the Student Teacher Inventory (examining individuals’ motivation for entering the helping profession), adapted from our validated instrument, the Heintzelman Inventory which measures altruism in counseling professionals, and answer the following research questions: (R1) How do pre-service teachers’ levels of altruism relate to their scores on their teacher assessment and evaluation tool. (R2): How do levels of altruistic caring relate to specific items on participants’ teacher assessment and evaluation tool (e.g., specifically items regarding interactions with students). (R3) Do pre-service teachers’ levels of altruism predict scores on the teacher assessment and evaluation tool?

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