Teaching Anxiety Scale

Abstract

The Teaching Anxiety Scale (TCHAS) is a psychometric instrument originally developed in 1973 by J. S. Parsons at Stanford University. Primarily designed for preservice teachers, the scale assesses anxiety specifically related to the professional demands and tasks associated with teaching. The initial version comprised 25 items and was intended to examine the relationship between teaching anxiety and the acquisition of essential teaching skills. Furthermore, the TCHAS serves a diagnostic function, helping teacher candidates identify personal strengths and areas requiring development prior to entering the classroom. Revised forms containing 24, 28, and 29 items are also available for use with inservice teachers.

Keywords

Teaching Anxiety Scale, TCHAS, teaching anxiety, preservice teachers, teacher preparation, educational assessment, psychometric scale, anxiety measure

Authors

J. S. Parsons

Purpose

The principal purpose of the TCHAS is to provide a standardized measurement of anxiety experienced by individuals concerning the act and responsibilities of teaching. This scale was explicitly constructed to capture anxiety related to the job itself, differentiating it from general anxiety measures.

For individuals enrolled in teacher preparation programs, the TCHAS aids in identifying specific areas where a preservice teacher may feel insecure or anxious, thereby facilitating targeted intervention or training. The original research also utilized the scale to explore how anxiety levels correlate with the development and acquisition of effective teaching skills.

Construct

The core psychological construct measured by the TCHAS is Teaching Anxiety. This construct is defined as the specific emotional distress, worry, or nervousness experienced by individuals, particularly new teachers, regarding various aspects of classroom performance, student management, observation, and professional competence. The psychometric evidence, particularly through factor analysis, supports the conceptualization of teaching anxiety as a single, unitary concept.

Validity

The construct validity of the TCHAS has been established through several rigorous analytical techniques, including component analysis, analysis of group differences, examination of internal structure, and measurement of change over time. Key findings supporting validity include:

• Correlational Evidence: The TCHAS demonstrated a positive correlation with the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, suggesting it measures a form of anxiety while maintaining specificity to the teaching context.

• Group Differentiation: Based on the evaluations of 25 teaching supervisors, groups identified as “most anxious” scored significantly higher on the TCHAS compared to groups identified as “least anxious,” confirming the scale’s ability to discriminate between high and low-anxiety individuals.

• Internal Structure: High alpha coefficients provided strong evidence that teaching anxiety functions as a single, coherent concept.

• Change Over Time: Longitudinal studies using the TCHAS indicated that anxiety levels tend to decrease for preservice teachers as they gain experience, further validating its sensitivity to developmental changes in confidence and skill acquisition.

Reliability

The TCHAS demonstrates strong internal consistency reliability across various teacher cohorts, indicating that the items reliably measure the same underlying construct. The Alpha coefficients reported for preservice teachers were consistently high, ranging from 0.88 to 0.92 across four different groups, including undergraduate and graduate elementary and secondary candidates.

For inservice teachers, internal consistency remained robust, with alpha coefficients of 0.87 for elementary and secondary teachers, and 0.93 for elementary and junior high school teachers. Furthermore, the scale exhibits good temporal stability, with test-retest correlations ranging from 0.60 to 0.95 across four groups, confirming the stability of anxiety measurements over short intervals.

Factor Analysis

Two separate factor analyses were conducted on the original 25-item TCHAS. The results consistently confirmed a single-factor solution, supporting the premise that teaching anxiety is a unified construct. In the 25-item version, 22 of the items loaded strongly onto this single factor. Items 3, 17, and 22 failed to contribute significantly to the single factor, leading to the validation of a revised 22-item version.

In subsequent, longer forms, such as the 29-item TCHAS, items 26 through 29, along with the original three problematic items (3, 17, and 22), also failed to load onto the primary factor, suggesting that these items may measure related but distinct aspects of teacher concern or efficacy rather than core teaching anxiety.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Likert scale

Format: Multiple forms available (22, 24, 25, 28, and 29 items). Approximately half of the items are negatively worded.

Language Available: English (Original development)

Population Group: Educational professionals (Preservice and Inservice teachers)

Age Group: Adults (College-age and professional educators)

Population Details: The study included six distinct groups: four groups of preservice teachers (N=200; including graduate interns, undergraduate student teachers, across secondary and elementary levels) and two groups of inservice teachers (N=407; newly hired elementary/secondary teachers and experienced elementary/junior high teachers).

Test Methodology: Distribution statistics are available for both preservice and inservice samples. The scale uses a 5-point frequency rating scale.

Keywords

Educational psychology, teaching efficacy, self-efficacy, teacher training, Cronbach’s alpha, psychometrics, anxiety assessment, teacher development

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source material. Developed at Stanford University.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1973

Permissions/Fee: Information regarding current usage fees or specific permissions is not available in the original source material. The original study was presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

The original manual and research paper, “Assessment of anxiety about teaching using the Teaching Anxiety Scale: Manual and research,” is cataloged under the ERIC system, reference ERIC ED 079 330.

Reference’s

• Parsons, J. S. (1973). Assessment of anxiety about teaching using the Teaching Anxiety Scale: Manual and research. Paper presented at American Educational Research Association. ERIC ED 079 330.

• Pigge, F. L., and Marso, R. N. (1994). Relationships of prospective teachers’ personality type and locus of control orientation with changes in their attitude and anxiety about teaching. Midwestern Educational Researcher 7:2–7.

Items of the Teaching Anxiety Scale

1. I feel calm and collected when I think about holding parent-teacher conferences.
2. If I have trouble answering a student’s question I (will find) find it difficult to concentrate on questions that follow.
3. I feel uncomfortable when I speak before a group.
4. I (would feel) feel calm (if I were) when I am preparing lessons.
5. I’m worried whether I can be a good teacher.
6. I feel sure I will find teaching a satisfying profession.
7. I would feel calm and collected if a student’s parent observed in my classroom.
8. I feel inferior to other preservice teachers in my teacher preparation program.
9. I feel that students will follow my instructions.
10. I feel secure with regard to my ability to keep a class under control.
11. I’m less happy teaching than I thought I’d be.
12. I feel nervous when I am being observed by my college supervisor.
13. I feel confident about my ability to improvise in the classroom.
14. I feel other teachers (will think) think I’m very competent.
15. I (would feel) feel panicky when a student asks me a question I (couldn’t) can’t answer.
16. I feel anxious because I don’t know yet whether I really want to be a teacher.
17. I feel better prepared for teaching than other preservice teachers in my teacher preparation program.
18. Lack of rapport with my students (will be) is one of my biggest worries.
19. I would feel anxious if the principal informed me he was coming to my class to observe.
20. I (would find) find it easy to speak up in the staff room.
21. I worry about being able to keep the students interested in what I (will teach) teach them.
22. I (would find) find it easy to admit to the class that I don’t know the answer to a question a student asks.
23. Deciding how to present information in the classroom (would make) makes me feel uncertain.
24. I feel I will have good recall of the things I know when I am in front of the class.
25. I feel I (will be) am as competent in the classroom as other preservice teachers in my teacher preparation program.
26. I’m concerned about how to use my testing of students as a useful indication of how effectively I’m teaching them.
27. I’m worried that differences in background between my students and me (will prevent) prevent me from teaching effectively.
28. I am certain that my own personal “hang-ups” (will not) do not hinder my teaching effectiveness.
29. I’m uncertain whether I (will be able to) can tell the difference between really seriously disturbed students and those who are merely “goofing off” in class.

Scoring: Responses are rated on a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Never, 2 = Infrequently, 3 = Occasionally, 4 = Frequently, and 5 = Always. Scoring is reversed for the following items, which reflect low anxiety or high confidence: 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 20, 22, 24, 25, and 28.