Expanding the evidence of content validity for the Teacher Behavior Checklist using the IRAP

Abstract

The Teacher Behavior Checklist (TBC) consists of 28 items mainly used to measure college teachers’ performance or to investigate the primary qualities of good teachers. Psychometric studies using the TBC have presented evidence of its validity and reliability in different cultures. However, TBC content validity is exclusively based on self-reported measurements, which presents limitations that are widely discussed in the literature. Our study sought to investigate an alternative measurement for TBC content validity using a latency-based task, namely the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). The main objective was to assess the strength of the relationship between the concept of “Good Teacher” and “Bad Teacher” and six positive and negative features derived from TBC items using an IRAP preparation. The second objective was to investigate the correlation between IRAP and TBC scores. The participants were 64 undergraduate students (M = 21; F = 43), aged 16 to 36. The IRAP trials included six target stimuli selected from the TBC that could be either “Good Teacher” or “Bad Teacher,” and six labels that could be either positive or negative features. The IRAP revealed that the “Good Teacher” is “Positive,” not “Negative.” On the other hand, the “Bad Teacher” is “Negative,” but participants could not deny that this teacher has “Positive” features. Only one statistically significant correlation was found between the Good Teacher-Negative IRAP trial type and the TBC score. Future studies should expand the use of implicit measurements in psychometric studies using the TBC.