Reliability of a Best Practice Instrument for Beginning Teacher Professionalism Development in High-Performing Primary Schools in Malaysia: A Rasch Measurement Model

Abstract

The Malaysia Ministry of Education is very concerned with professional development plans, which aim to improve the ability and performance of teachers including beginning teachers across the country to make them more prepared, enthusiastic, and committed in carrying out their teaching duties. This study was carried out with the aim of building a best practice instrument for developing beginning teacher professionalism in high performing primary schools in Malaysia according to the context of the study and further determining the reliability of the instrument administered to 123 beginning teachers. From a reliability point of view, the item reliability index shows a high level of reliability which is 0.98 while the respondent's reliability index is 0.95. The results of the study show that the instrument has high reliability in measuring best practices in the development of primary teachers' professionalism in high performing primary schools in Malaysia.