ICCS 2009 Technical Report - IEA

Teacher questionnaireTeachers’ perceptions of school governanceTwo scales were derived from questions regarding school governance. Table 12.22 presents thereliabilities for these scales, both of which are included in the ICCS teacher database. The scalesare:• Teachers’ participation in school governance (TCHPART);• Teachers’ perceptions of students’ influence on decisions about school (TSTUDINF).Question 11 presents a series of statements for teachers. These were used to form the scaleteachers’ participation in school governance (TCHPART). Respondents were asked to indicate thenumber of teachers in their respective schools who were participating in each of the activitiesindicated by the statements (response options were “all or nearly all,” “most of them,” “someof them,” “none or hardly any”). This scale had a reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of 0.86 for thepooled ICCS sample, and the country reliabilities ranged from 0.72 to 0.91 (see Table 12.22).Table 12.23 shows the item wording as well as the item parameters that were used for scaling.The higher values on this scale reflect greater teacher participation in school governance.Question 13 of the teacher questionnaire asked respondents to indicate the extent to whichstudents’ opinions were taken into account when decisions were being made about schoolrelatedmatters (“to a large extent,” “to a moderate extent,” “to a small extent,” “not at all”).The first four items were used to construct the scale teachers’ perceptions of students’ influence ondecisions about school (TSTUDINF). The larger scale values reflect perceptions of higher degreesof student influence. The scale had a reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of 0.80 for the pooledICCS sample; the country reliabilities ranged from 0.60 to 0.87 (see Table 12.22). Table 12.23presents the item parameters used for scaling.The confirmatory factor analysis of these two items sets showed an acceptable model fit(see Figure 12.13). The size of the factor loadings illustrated that these items measured theunderlying construct well. The two latent factors were positively correlated at 0.49.Teachers’ perceptions of teaching in classesThe reliabilities for the three scales that were derived from questions regarding teaching inclassrooms are reported in Table 12.24. These scales, which are included in the ICCS teacherdatabase, are:• Confidence in teaching methods (CONFTCH);• Teachers’ use of assessment (TCASSESS);• Teachers’ reports of students’ participation in class activities (TSTCLACT).The six items relating to Question 10 in the teacher questionnaire were used to form the scaleconfidence in teaching methods (CONFTCH). This question asked teachers to rate their confidencein using a variety of teaching methods and approaches (“very confident,” “quite confident,” “notvery confident,” “not confident at all”). The scale reliability of CONFTCH was 0.73 for thepooled ICCS sample, and the country reliabilities ranged from 0.58 to 0.82 (see Table 12.24).Table 12.25 shows the item wording as well as the item parameters that were used for scaling.The higher values on this scale reflect higher levels of confidence in teaching methods.Question 18 was designed to determine the extent of teachers’ use of assessment (TCASSESS).Response categories were “to a large extent,” “to a moderate extent,” “to a small extent or not atall”). The six items that formed the scale listed a range of purposes for which assessment taskscould be used. Higher scale scores corresponded to greater use of assessments. This scale had areliability of 0.77 for the pooled ICCS sample, while the country reliabilities ranged from 0.55to 0.85 (see Table 12.24). Table 12.25 shows the item parameters that were used for scaling.SCALING PROCEDURES FOR ICCS questionnaire ITEMS195