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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1445865

Psychometric Properties of an Instrument to Assess Teachers` Practice of Differentiated Instruction (IATPDI): A Confirmatory Factor Analysis on Bhutanese Teachers` Data

Provisionally accepted
Tshering Dorji Tshering Dorji 1*Pelden Nima Pelden Nima 2
  • 1 Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Shari Higher Secondary School, Paro, Bhutan
  • 2 Wangbama Central School, Thimphu, Bhutan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    We developed the IATPDI questionnaire, comprising seven scales for assessing teachers` implementation of assessment methods, content, process, and product differentiation, familiarity with and use of various differentiated instruction (DI) strategies, factors influencing DI implementation, and resources used to enhance DI efficacy. This study examined the psychometric properties of the initial four scales with 35 items. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 237 Bhutanese teachers (66.2% male, 33.8% female), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used for psychometric evaluation. CFA supported the hypothesized four scales (CFI = 0.911, TLI = 0.903, SRMR = 0.052, RMSEA = 0.059, χ²/df = 1.58). Cronbach`s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.83 to 0.92, and Composite reliability (CR) ranged from 0.86 to 0.92, indicating high internal consistency reliability. Inter-factor correlations supported discriminant validity for most factor pairs, but correlations exceeding 0.85 between some pairs suggested potential overlap, prompting further investigation. Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values for assessment, content, process, and product factors were 0.50, 0.41, 0.53, and 0.51, respectively. While AVE for process and product factors surpassed the commonly accepted threshold (0.50) for convergent validity, the assessment factor approached the threshold and the content factor fell below it, indicating the need for further refinement of its indicators. However, all standardized factor loadings were significant (p < 0.05), confirming convergent validity. These results indicate that the proposed four scales of the IATPDI questionnaire are reliable and valid in measuring the intended constructs.Nevertheless, they also highlight the need for further refinement in identified areas to enhance the tool.

    Keywords: Differentiated instruction in Bhutan, confirmatory factor analysis, Content validity index, Bhutanese teachers, DI instrument, Education, Bhutan

    Received: 08 Jun 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dorji and Nima. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tshering Dorji, Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Shari Higher Secondary School, Paro, Bhutan

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