Instructional Practices of Teachers in General Education Classrooms and Gifted Resource Rooms: Development and Validation of the Instructional Practice Questionnaire

Abstract

An instrument to measure teachers’ instructional practices, the Instructional Practice Questionnaire, was developed and validated in three phases. The questionnaires focused on three domains of instructional practices: cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. First, an initial questionnaire was developed for a pilot study, and data were gathered to analyze questionnaire items with 97 general education teachers. Second, the questionnaire was revised based on the findings of the first-phase data analysis. Third, the revised questionnaire was distributed to two new samples (144 general education teachers and 67 GATE resource room teachers) in an effort to provide reliability and validity evidence of the scores from the revised questionnaire. The questionnaire would be useful for educators and researchers who are interested in understanding instructional practices of classroom teachers and in improving classroom instruction for gifted and talented students.