Initial Development and Validation of the Positive Teacher Scale

Abstract

In literature, positive features of teachers have been investigated under many dimensions. Positive teacher studies focus more on positive teacher-student relationships. Although there are measurement tools that measure positive student-teacher relationships in the literature, there are no tools of measuring the positive teacher characteristics in a comprehensive way. The aim of this study is to develop a scale that measure positive teacher qualities. Parallel with the aim of the present study, a cross sectional research design was used. In this study, scale development process was followed. Item preparations, item analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity analysis have been considered in this study. The data were collected form university students (203 individuals in exploratory analysis group; 209 individuals in confirmatory analysis group). According to factor analysis results, the scale which is consist of six dimensions which are named such as “satisfying students’ need for competence”, “building positive relationships with students”, “concretize the subject which is taught”, “being extravert”, “supporting students’ flow experience” and “supporting students’ class engagement” has 66.01% explained variance. In the future some studies might be carried out via Positive Teacher Scale.