Date Available

12-12-2017

Year of Publication

2016

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Michael D. Toland

Second Advisor

Dr. Fred W. Danner

Abstract

The current study examined associations between teacher characteristics and child literacy outcomes in a Kentucky preschool sample. The study also examined the psychometric properties of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001), a frequently used measure of teacher self-efficacy. A widely used preschool assessment instrument, Teaching Strategies GOLD® (GOLD; Heroman, Burts, Berke, & Bickart, 2010), measured child literacy progress. Psychometric examination included confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) of TSES scores. Statistical analyses included longitudinal growth modeling of TSES scores and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) of TSES and child GOLD literacy scores. CFAs provided evidence that a one-factor model of the 12- and 24-item TSES was reasonable for modeling purposes. LMI analyses indicated that metric invariance was tenable for the 12-item TSES. Growth modeling analyses indicated that growth in TSES scores was minimal across one academic year, using the 12- and 24-item TSES. HLM analyses indicated that teachers with early childhood education certification and higher mean TSES scores were associated with higher child literacy growth in the sample. Study recommendations included further psychometric investigation of the TSES, as well as investigation of associations between other teacher characteristics and child literacy scores.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.478

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