Syllogism Test

Abstract

The Teacher Preference Schedules (TPS), developed by Stern, Masling, and colleagues in 1960, were designed as a sophisticated psychometric instrument to assess unconscious motivations and attitudes related to the profession of teaching. The initial development involved describing 18 distinct teaching roles, which were then refined through extensive interviews with educators embodying these roles. Ultimately, the TPS focused on measuring teaching gratifications and attitudes across ten specific dimensions: practical, status-striving, nurturant, nondirective, critical, preadult-fixated, orderly, dependent, exhibitionistic, and dominant roles. The complete instrument utilized a pool of 100 items, structured into both gratification and attitude scales, each employing a six-point response system. Initial studies demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including good test-retest reliability and significant item discrimination across the subscales, supporting its use with teacher-trainees, practice-teachers, and experienced educators.

Keywords

Teacher Preference Schedules, Test Development, Test Reliability, Test Validity, Teaching Roles, Teacher Attitudes, Gratification, Teaching Motivation, Educational Measurement

Authors

Stern, George G., Masling, Joseph, Denton, Barnett, Henderson, John, Levin, Rachel

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Teacher Preference Schedules is to provide a standardized method for quantifying the underlying psychological drivers of teaching behavior. Specifically, the instrument aims to measure two related but distinct psychological domains: gratification, which represents the unconscious motivations or rewards sought through teaching, and attitudes, which serve as the rationalizations or conscious beliefs associated with these roles.

By assessing these variables across ten predefined teaching roles, the TPS provides a detailed profile of an individual’s psychological alignment with the demands and rewards of the teaching profession. This assessment was intended for use with teacher-trainees, practice-teachers, and experienced teachers to understand vocational fit and potential areas of professional satisfaction or conflict.

Construct

The TPS measures the complex construct of Teaching Motivation, often operationalized within the instrument as Teaching Gratification. This construct encompasses the psychological needs and desires that an individual seeks to fulfill through their engagement in educational activities. The instrument distinguishes these underlying motivations from conscious, stated attitudes, providing insight into the deeper psychological structure of an educator’s vocational choice.

The ten specific roles measured by the scales represent various facets of professional engagement and psychological orientation, ranging from task-oriented roles (e.g., practical, orderly) to interpersonal or affective roles (e.g., nurturant, critical, dominant). This multidimensional approach allows for a nuanced assessment of an educator’s psychological landscape.

Validity

The validity of the Teacher Preference Schedules was initially established through rigorous item discrimination analysis. This method ensured that individual items effectively differentiated between high and low scorers on the measured constructs, thereby contributing meaningfully to the overall scale scores. The authors utilized a stringent criterion for assessing item quality during the development phase.

Specifically, the item discrimination analysis reported that the lowest scale average achieved a value of .26. This figure notably exceeds the .20 threshold suggested by Ebel for significant discrimination, indicating statistically adequate differentiation across all measured scales. Furthermore, the majority of item entries demonstrated robust discrimination values, often exceeding a high threshold of .40, lending strong support to the internal consistency and structural validity of the derived scales.

Reliability

The reliability of the TPS was evaluated using test-retest reliability methods, demonstrating the stability and consistency of the scores over time. The instrument is composed of 10 distinct subscales, and the reliability coefficients reported for these subscales indicated good internal consistency and stability for a newly developed measure.

The reported reliability coefficients spanned a strong range from .654 to .865. These values suggest that the instrument provides dependable measures of teaching motivations and attitudes, making it a reliable tool for researchers and educational psychologists studying teacher characteristics and vocational alignment.

Factor Analysis

The initial validation study of the Teacher Preference Schedules (1960) did not include a formal factor analysis. The scales were developed based on a theoretical framework derived from initial interviews and role descriptions, rather than relying on exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis to define the underlying latent structure of the 10 subscales.

Instrument

Test Type: Interview Schedule/Guide, standardized as a self-report questionnaire.

Format: Paper-and-pencil administration, utilizing a six-point Likert-type response system for both the gratification and attitude scales.

Language Available: English (based on original publication in the United States).

Population Group: Human; specifically administered to individuals involved in the teaching profession or training, including Male and Female participants.

Age Group: Typically adult populations (undergraduates, trainees, and experienced teachers).

Population Details: The initial sample population was drawn from the United States and consisted primarily of undergraduates, teacher-trainees, practice-teachers, and experienced teachers.

Test Methodology: The scale consists of 100 items distributed across 10 scales. The Gratification Scale uses a response system ranging from “strong dislike, disapproval” to “strong liking, preference, approval.” The Attitude Scale utilizes a range from “strong disagreement” to “strong agreement.”

Keywords

Teacher Preference Schedules, Psychological Assessment, Educational Psychology, Vocational Assessment, Item Discrimination, Stern G. G., Teacher Characteristics, Motivation

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information not available in the source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information not available in the source material.

Correspondence Address: Information not available in the source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: The instrument may be used for Research and Teaching purposes, according to the source permissions. Users should contact the original publisher or authors for current licensing details.

Fee: Fee information is not specified; contact authors/publisher.

Test Year: 1960

Reference’s

• Stern, G. G., Masling, J., Denton, B., Henderson, J., & Levin, R. (1960). Two scales for the assessment of unconscious motivations for teaching. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 9–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000102

Items of the Syllogism Test

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The items for the Teacher Preference Schedules are not publicly available in the source documentation. Interested researchers or practitioners should contact the original authors or the publisher for information regarding obtaining the test items.