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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1519327

Construction of a Scale Measuring Primary Teachers' Self-efficacy to Teach STEAM: The STEAM-TSES

Provisionally accepted
Ivana Stepanović Ilić Ivana Stepanović Ilić 1*Francisco Peixoto Francisco Peixoto 2Milana Dabić Boričić Milana Dabić Boričić 3Marina Videnoviv Marina Videnoviv 4José Castro Silva José Castro Silva 2Nadia Ferreira Nadia Ferreira 2Vera Monteiro Vera Monteiro 2
  • 1 Department of Psychology,Faculty of Philosophy,University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
  • 2 University Institute of Psychological, Social and Life Sciences (ISPA), Lisbon, Portugal
  • 3 Teacher Education Faculty, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
  • 4 Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

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

    The STEAM-TSES was developed to measure teachers' self-efficacy (TSE) in teaching STEAM disciplines due to the lack of instruments measuring specific TSE dimensions, especially in STEAM education. This paper presents the validation results based on a sample of 805 Portuguese and Serbian primary school teachers. The scale comprises 36 items measuring TSE related to mathematics, biology, chemistry, science, and arts, the ability to motivate students, and confidence in integrating STEAM disciplines. The measurement model tested through Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed an acceptable fit to the data, supporting the existence of nine factors: five related to TSE in teaching specific subjects, three focused on motivating students in mathematics, science, and arts, and one related to integrated teaching. The analyses show good psychometric characteristics of the STEAM-TSES, and the correlations with the TSE scale indicate the validity of distinguishing constructs associated with STEAM education..

    Keywords: Teachers' self-efficacy1, STEAM2, primary school3, scale development4, Scale validation5

    Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Stepanović Ilić, Peixoto, Dabić Boričić, Videnoviv, Castro Silva, Ferreira and Monteiro. 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: Ivana Stepanović Ilić, Department of Psychology,Faculty of Philosophy,University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.