This study examined the psychometric properties of a revised measurement, the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey, devised for teachers of 3- to 5-year-old children. The measure was designed to reflect the concepts of DAP (developmentally appropriate practices) as presented in the revised 1997 NAEYC guidelines and consisted of 2 scales. Three hundred seventy five surveys completed by public kindergarten teachers in Southeast Louisiana were utilized in the study.
Reliability was examined using internal consistency method. Cronbach¡¯s ¥á was .858 for the Beliefs Scale and .787 for the Instructional Activities Scale. Validity of the measure was examined in its content, criterion, and construct (Carmines & Zeller, 1979). Content validity was enhanced by reflecting the feedback from the nationwide experts in early childhood education on the survey before administering the measure to the targeted teachers. Criterion-related validity was supported when the findings showed that one of the sub-measures, the measure of the developmentally inappropriate practices, showed a high correlation with the score from the observed classroom practices. The following results support construct validity: first, the factors uncovered in the survey matched the important concepts of DAP in the guidelines; second, predictors of DAP found to be significant from previous studies were also significant in both of the subscales; third, the low but significant correlation between the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey score and a theoretically related measure, the Teacher Educational Attitude Scale (Rescorla et al., 1990) was found. Considering the psychometric properties, the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey appears to be a promising measure for critically examining teachers¡¯ beliefs about and practices of DAP.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07072005-001118 |
| Date | 13 July 2005 |
| Creators | Kim, Kyung-Ran |
| Contributors | Janet McDonald, Joan Benedict, Earl Cheek, Teresa Buchanan, Diane Burts |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07072005-001118/ |
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