Teachers’ Beliefs about Administrators scale (TBA)

Abstract

The Teachers’ Beliefs about Administrators (TBA) scale is a concise, 12-item instrument designed to assess the perceptions and attitudes of teachers regarding their administrative support systems. Developed by Feldman and Gerstein (1988), the TBA scale is one of three related instruments focusing on key relationships within the educational environment, alongside the Teachers’ Beliefs about Parents Scale and the Perceptions of Parental Beliefs Concerning Teachers. Collectively, these scales provide essential psychometric data used to evaluate the content and quality of interactions among teachers, parents, and school administrators. The scale demonstrates high internal consistency and measures a unidimensional construct focused on administrative leadership, partnership, and support.

Keywords

Teachers’ Beliefs about Administrators, TBA, administrative support, school leadership, teacher attitudes, psychometrics, educational psychology, school climate.

Authors

Feldman, D., Gerstein, L. H.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the TBA scale is to quantify and understand teachers’ affective and cognitive beliefs concerning the administrators within their educational setting. Specifically, it seeks to determine the level and nature of perceived administrative support systems, encompassing areas like leadership, professional partnership, and conflict resolution.

The scale was developed to provide researchers and school systems with a reliable metric for assessing the quality of teacher-administrator relationships, which are crucial components of a positive educational environment and effective school functioning. The original study utilized the scale alongside related instruments to explore the complex dynamics among all major stakeholders—teachers, parents, and administrators.

Construct

The Teachers’ Beliefs about Administrators (TBA) scale measures a single, underlying psychological construct representing the overall perception of administrative effectiveness and supportiveness as viewed by the teaching staff. The underlying belief structure, identified through factor analysis, centers on three core thematic components: administrative leadership, administrative partnership, and administrative support.

This construct captures beliefs related to specific administrative behaviors, such as handling teacher professional development (e.g., recognizing the need for time for beginning teachers), managing classroom discipline issues, facilitating positive parent-teacher interactions, and demonstrating general academic and disciplinary leadership within the school environment.

Validity

The validity of the TBA scale was established through two primary methods: content validity and construct validity.

Content validity was established during the initial scale construction phase. This process involved a rigorous review of the existing literature concerning administrative responsibilities and prior research on teacher attitudes toward administrators to identify relevant concepts. These concepts were then sorted by a panel of expert judges, consisting of five education professors and six doctoral students, who achieved a perfect 100 percent interrater agreement on the identified conceptual domains.

Construct validity was substantiated using advanced factor analytic procedures. This confirmed that the 12 items cohered to measure the intended underlying psychological construct, specifically beliefs regarding administrative leadership, partnership, and support systems.

Reliability

The internal consistency reliability of the Teachers’ Beliefs about Administrators scale was found to be exceptionally high. The scale yielded a Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.92.

This strong coefficient suggests high homogeneity among the 12 items and confirms that the scale consistently measures the single latent construct of perceived administrative support, making it a reliable instrument for use in educational research.

Factor Analysis

Principal components factor analysis, utilizing a varimax rotation, was employed to establish a meaningful factor structure and eliminate extraneous items. The data analysis also included tests for reliability and the reporting of factor loadings, means, and standard deviations.

The final factor solution was cross-validated and yielded a clear, single factor encompassing all 12 items. This outcome confirms the unidimensionality of the TBA scale, with the primary factor defined by beliefs centered on administrative leadership, administrative partnership, and administrative support.

Instrument

Test Type: Attitude/Belief Scale

Format: 12 Likert-type items using a percentage likelihood scaling format.

Language Available: English (Original research language)

Population Group: Teachers

Age Group: Adult (Teachers enrolled in graduate courses)

Population Details: The initial sample consisted of 462 teachers who were pursuing graduate coursework at three state universities located in Arizona, Indiana, and Texas, USA.

Test Methodology: Self-report questionnaire utilizing a percentage likelihood scaling format (ranging from 0 percent to 100 percent, with 10-point intervals).

Keywords

Administrative leadership, teacher-administrator relationships, educational assessment, scale development, Cronbach’s Alpha, Principal components factor analysis, educational research.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not specified in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1988

Permissions and Fee: Information regarding current usage permissions and associated fees must be sought from the journal publisher (Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development) or the original authors (Feldman and Gerstein).

Reference’s

The primary publication detailing the development and psychometrics of the TBA scale is:

• Feldman, D., and Gerstein, L. H. (1988). A factor analytic study of three teacher belief scales. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development 21:72–80.

Additional references cited in the original article include:

• Hoy, W. K., and Henderson, J. E. (1983). Principal authenticity, school climate, and pupil-control orientation. Alberta Journal of Educational Research 29:123–30.
• Robson, D. L. (1981). Administering educational services for the handicapped: Role expectations and perceptions. Exceptional Children 47:377–78.

Items of the Teachers’ Beliefs about Administrators scale (TBA)

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

I believe that Administrators

1. Know that beginning teachers need time to become master teachers.
2. Realize that teacher training in classroom discipline does not imply that teacher’s sovereign territory of total management of problem behavior.
3. Support both parents and teachers, seeking to develop common ground with mutual regard and respect.
4. Seek to discover on a firsthand basis, in the environment of noted conflict, possible solutions.
5. Resolve problems between parents and teachers that maintain the “face” or “egos” of both parties.
6. Serve as an equivalent partner in behavior management responsibility.
7. Display academic leadership.
8. Display school discipline leadership.
9. Develop positive school climate.
10. Want to improve their interactions with parents.
11. Want to improve their interactions with teachers.
12. Are partners in the educational process.