Date Available

4-27-2016

Year of Publication

2016

Degree Name

Master of Science in Education (MSEd)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Michael D. Toland

Abstract

This study aimed to measure teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Teacher self-efficacy refers to the belief teachers hold about their ability to affect student learning and has been shown to change teachers’ motivation, stress levels, and amount of given effort (Klassen, Tze, Betts, & Gordon, 2011). Numerous studies have dealt with the measurement of this construct and developed measures that assess teachers in different domains and populations; however, only one study (Ruble, Toland, Birdwhistell, McGrew, & Usher, 2013) has attempted to measure within the population of students with ASD. The purpose of the current study was to develop and pilot a new measure, the Teacher Self-Efficacy for Autism Scale (TSEAS), expand the construct to the target population, and provide sources of validity evidence. Results indicated that the TSEAS represented a unidimensional scale and latent correlation analyses suggested that the TSEAS has a positive correlation with a well-known teacher self-efficacy measure and has a low, positive correlation with a job satisfaction instrument. With continued refinement, the TSEAS can support others who wish to measure this construct and future application of the methods employed in building this scale can be applied to other scales with minor revisions.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.082

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