Measuring teacher self-efficacy: How accurate are common questionnaire items?
Teacher self-efficacy is currently a much discussed topic in educational research. Often, the focus of the numerous studies is on correlations of self-efficacy with other characteristics such as emotional exhaustion.
However, for years there has also been repeated criticism from researchers. According to them, the measurement of teacher self-efficacy with common questionnaires shows problems: If researchers use different questionnaires, they obtain different results. This in turn raises the question of the extent to which existing research on teacher self-efficacy is reliable.
For example, it is problematic that some questionnaires titled self-efficacy do not measure self-efficacy, but rather completely different constructs, such as knowledge.
Given such hurdles in collecting data on self-efficacy, the Professorship for Research on Learning and Instruction has already developed a coding scheme to assess the content fit of questionnaire items as part of a previous research effort.
In the context of this thesis, you make use of the already developed coding scheme to evaluate existing items on the topics of self-efficacy regarding heterogeneity and differentiation as well as self-efficacy regarding collaboration in school. In this way, inferences can be made regarding the measurement of teacher self-efficacy in these topics and the validity of questionnaires in teacher self-efficacy can be assessed.
This thesis will enable you to engage with current research on teacher self-efficacy as well as evaluate existing data. In doing so, you will contribute directly to the research of the Professorship for Research on Learning and Instruction at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology.
Interested?
Then we look forward to hearing from you via e-mail at:
janina.taeschner@tum.de