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Background: Situational judgement tests (SJTs) measure non-cognitive attributes and have recently drawn attention as a selection method for initial teacher education programmes. To date, very little is known about adverse impact in teacher selection SJT performance. Aims: This study aimed to shed light on adverse effects of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status (SES) on SJT scores, by exploring both main effects and interactions, and considering both overall SJT performance and separate SJT domain scores (mindset, emotion regulation, and conscientiousness). Sample: A total of 2,808 prospective teachers from the United Kingdom completed the SJTs as part of the initial stage of selection into a teacher education programme. Methods: In addition to SJT scores, the variables gender (female vs. male), ethnicity (majority group vs. minority group), and home SES background (higher SES status vs. lower SES status) were used in the analyses. Regression models and moderated regression models were employed. Results and conclusions: Results from the regression models revealed that gender effects (females scoring higher than males) were restricted to emotion regulation, while ethnicity effects (ethnic majority group members scoring higher than ethnic minority group members) emerged for SJT overall scores and all three domains. Moderated regression modelling results furthermore showed significant interactions (gender and ethnicity) for SJT overall scores and two domains. Considering the importance of reducing subgroup differences in selection test scores to ensure equal access to teacher education, this study's findings are a critical contribution. The partially differentiated results for overall vs. domain-specific scores point towards the promise of applying a domain-level perspective in research on teacher selection SJTs.

Background: Within-class consensus on mastery goal structures describes the extent to which students agree in their perceptions of mastery goal structures. Research on (work) teams suggests that higher levels of consensus within a group indicate a well-functioning social environment and are thus positively related to beneficial socio-emotional outcomes. However, the potential of within-class consensus to predict socio-emotional outcomes has not yet been explored in research on mastery goal structures. Aims: This study aimed to test whether within-class consensus on the three mastery goal structures dimensions of task, autonomy, and recognition/evaluation has predictive power for socio-emotional outcomes in terms of classroom climate, negative classmate reactions to errors, and cooperative learning. Sample: A total of 1,455 Austrian secondary school students (65.70% female) in 157 classrooms participated in this study. Methods: Students responded to items measuring their perceptions of mastery goal structures, classroom climate, error climate, and cooperative learning. Items assessing mastery goal structures, error climate, and cooperative learning referred to the subject of mathematics and items assessing classroom climate referred to positive classmate relations without focusing on a subject. Results: Results from multilevel structural equation models revealed that within-class consensus on all mastery goal structures dimensions predicted a less negative error climate. Additionally, consensus regarding task and autonomy predicted more frequent use of cooperative learning strategies, and consensus regarding task predicted a more positive classroom climate. Conclusions: Our findings show that higher levels of within-class consensus on mastery goal structures enhance beneficial socio-emotional outcomes. Moreover, the results emphasize the value of expanding the scope of educational research to the study of within-class consensus.