Measuring Teachers’ Beliefs: A Comparison of Three Different Approaches

Safrudiannur; Benjamin Rott

doi:10.29333/ejmste/110058

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Safrudiannur ¹ ² ^* , Benjamin Rott ¹

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¹ University of Cologne, GERMANY² Mulawarman University, INDONESIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

The use of Likert scale items for measuring teachers’ beliefs quantitatively is criticized. In this study, two quantitative methods to measure teachers’ beliefs, a Likert scale instrument as well as a new instrument employing rank-then-rate items, are each compared with a qualitative approach at obtaining beliefs, i.e. interviews along with observations. In the first comparison, teachers’ responses to the Likert scale instrument seem to not fit the beliefs interpreted from the qualitative approach, particularly regarding beliefs about teaching and learning. Further analyses show that a tendency to respond according to social desirability as well as unspecific teaching contexts seem to be responsible for these inconsistencies. In the second comparison, since the rank-then-rate instrument also takes students’ abilities as a teaching context into account, we observed a better fit between teachers’ responses to the instrument and the qualitative approach. The results of both comparisons indicate the importance of considering teaching contexts as well as alternatives to Likert scale items because of social desirability in order to have a better prediction about teachers’ beliefs.

Keywords

measuring teachers’ beliefs
Likert scale
social desirability
social context
students’ abilities

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2020, Volume 16, Issue 1, Article No: em1796

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/110058

Publication date: 08 Sep 2019

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How to cite this article

APA

Safrudiannur, & Rott, B. (2020). Measuring Teachers’ Beliefs: A Comparison of Three Different Approaches. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(1), em1796. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/110058

Vancouver

Safrudiannur, Rott B. Measuring Teachers’ Beliefs: A Comparison of Three Different Approaches. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(1):em1796. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/110058

AMA

Safrudiannur, Rott B. Measuring Teachers’ Beliefs: A Comparison of Three Different Approaches. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(1), em1796. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/110058

Chicago

Safrudiannur, and Benjamin Rott. "Measuring Teachers’ Beliefs: A Comparison of Three Different Approaches". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2020 16 no. 1 (2020): em1796. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/110058

Harvard

Safrudiannur, and Rott, B. (2020). Measuring Teachers’ Beliefs: A Comparison of Three Different Approaches. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(1), em1796. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/110058

MLA

Safrudiannur et al. "Measuring Teachers’ Beliefs: A Comparison of Three Different Approaches". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 16, no. 1, 2020, em1796. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/110058