Know thyself: Development and validation of self-awareness of teaching skills (SATS) measuring instrument for medical teachers

Abstract

Background Self-awareness is measured previously in the higher education however not specifically in relation to ‘effectiveness of teaching’ thus leaving a gap in the literature. Aim To develop and validate an instrument for medical teachers to measure the self-awareness of their teaching. Methods This was an instrument development multiphase mixed-method study design, based on Brookfield’s four lenses theory. The instrument was validated after administering content validity, cognitive pretesting, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis. Contrasting groups’ method of standard setting was used to determine the cut-off scores for the levels of self-awareness of medical teachers. Results A 26-item preliminary draft instrument was reduced to a 19-item final instrument having four themes, that is; self-reflection, communication with students, student feedback, and peer review. Content Validity Scale was 0.92. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded a model with a good-to-excellent fit and an internal consistency of 0.85. The cut-off values were calculated to be 79%, 70%, 59%, and 53% for excellent, good, average and poor self-awareness of teaching skills respectively. Conclusion The Self-awareness of the teaching skills instrument has excellent validity and good reliability in measuring the self-awareness of teaching skills of medical teachers.