e-International Journal of Educational Research

Abstract

 Extended Abstract

Problem: A well educated individual will benefit both her/him self and the society. In a rapidly changing world, expectations from individual also have considerably changed. Individuals are expected to have multifaceted roles, knowledge, skills, and attitudes of knowledge society (Drucker, 1993, 293; Fındıkçı, 1998, 84; Rosovsky, 1995: 105–107). For this aim education systems are established by governments. The most critique element of education systems are teachers. Teachers must believe to system that it yield intended outcomes. Believing the system will probably provide teachers to commit their work and increase their job satisfaction. On the other hand, weak beliefs may lead alienation, burnout, and similar negative consequences. For this reason it is taught that clarifying teachers’ beliefs about their work is a critical construct to study. The aim of this research is to develop a valid and reliable instrument to scale the beliefs of teachers about education.
Research Methodology: This study is conducted to develop a valid and reliable instrument for teachers’ beliefs about education. The study group consisted of 293 primary, secondary and high school teachers from Tokat province and its districts. 121 of the participants were female and 172 of them were male. The draft scale items written based on the literature, legal regulations, and field experts’ explanations. The final item pool was consisted of 29 items. Teachers’ levels of believe in education scale (TLBES) is formatted as a Likert instrument.
Findings: A Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) conducted to test the factorability of the scale. Appropriateness of the data for EFA tested with KMO value. The KMO value was found as .96 and the Bartlett's Test of Sphericity score was significant (p < .05). Eigen values, total variances explained, and scree plot graphic was used to decide the number of factors. A four factor construct accepted explaining the 65.146 of the total variance. After varimax rotation the items loading more than .30 both own and other factors removed from scale and then EFA repeated. EFA finalized remaining 25 items with factor loadings over .45. Total variance explained was 65.9% with 25 items. Cronbach’s alpha scores, item total correlations, upper and lower 27% group scores t-test, and dimensions correlations used to test the reliability of the scale. Cronbach’s alpha scores were .94 for the first dimension, .88 for the second dimension, .87 for the third dimension, and .69 for the last dimension. Item total correlations ranged from .544 to .788. Upper and lower 27% group scores t values were significant for all items (p< .001). Also Pearson correlations were significant for all dimensions (p< .001). Based on all these findings, it is decided that TLBES is a valuable and reliable scale with its four dimensions. First dimension labeled as socialization with 12 items. Second dimension labeled as individual differences with 5 items. Third dimension labeled as multi-faceted development with 5 items. Last dimension labeled as preparing to upper education with 3 items.
Conclusion and Suggestions: A four dimension, valuable, and reliable scale to measure the teachers’ levels of beliefs in education was developed in this study: Teachers’ Levels of Believe in Education Scale (TLBES). TLBES may be applied to search the antecedents and the consequences of the teachers’ belief in education. In this manner, reflections of teachers’ believing or not believing to education can be explicitly understood and practitioners may develop policies.