Adaptation of ATI-R Scale to Turkish Samples: Validity and Reliability Analyses

Erdogan Tezci

doi:10.5539/ies.v10n1p67

Abstract

Teachers’ teaching approaches have become an important issue in the search of quality in education and teaching because of their effect on students’ learning. Improvements in teachers’ knowledge and awareness of their own teaching approaches enable them to adopt teaching process in accordance with their students’ learning styles. The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI-R), which has been developed and revised in this framework, is a scale which is effectively used to define teaching approaches in different cultures. Originally written in English, the ATI-R’s validity and reliability results were very positive. The scale’s validity and reliability analyses in different languages and cultures have produced a wide range of different results. The aim of this paper is to adapt the scale in the Turkish language. Firstly, in order to handle linguistic equivalence, data collected from 40 teachers were analyzed, and then for confirmatory and reliability analyses data were collected from 485 teachers. According to the analyses, the scale has two dimensions, and under these two dimensions there are four sub-factors. Reliability and validity results in Turkish culture are also acceptable. As a result, the scale can be administered to define teachers’ teaching approaches in Turkish samples.

Highlights

Educational reform, means to switch from teacher-centered approaches to student-centered educational activities (Yanpar-Yelken, & Kılıç, 2010)
The values related to the Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were calculated as X2/df = 5.669, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) .099; Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI)=.83 and Comparative Fit Index (CFI)
Modifications were made for eight error variances; no improvement was seen in fit indices but the fit indices did not reach the desired values

Summary

Introduction

Educational reform, means to switch from teacher-centered approaches to student-centered educational activities (Yanpar-Yelken, & Kılıç, 2010). Many studies have indicated that teachers’ teaching perceptions deeply affect their teaching approaches and their teaching approaches profoundly affect students’ learning approaches (Coffey & Gibbs, 2000; Gibbs & Coffey, 2004; Lindblom-Ylänne, Trigwell, Nevgi, & Ashwin, 2004; Trigwell, Prosser, & Waterhouse, 1999). As teachers’ teaching approaches affected students’ learning, student-focused education approaches have become the central subject in both pre-service and in-service education of teachers (Alkin-Sahin, 2015; Biggs, 1993). Teachers’ perception towards teaching affects their teaching behaviour For this reason, both pre-service and in-service education, it is aimed at changing this perception and raising knowledge and experiences serving a student-focused teaching approach (Biggs, 2003; Kember & Kwan, 2000; Postareff, Lindblom-Ylänne, & Nevgi, 2007; Wilson & Berne, 1999). “Studies of the evaluation of the tranings are generally about teachers’ satisfaction about the given training courses, but the number of studies showing the effect of the trainings on their daily teaching practice is very limited’’ (Stes, De Maeyer, & Van Petegem, 2010, p. 187)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion