Educational Beliefs Questionnaire

Abstract

The Educational Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ) is a psychometric instrument developed by Silvernail in 1992 designed to assess teachers’ beliefs regarding core educational concepts. The final version of the scale consists of 20 items, which are structured around five fundamental educational concepts and evaluated against five distinct educational philosophies. Through rigorous factor analysis, the items were grouped into a three-factor solution: Perennialism Orientation, Romanticism Orientation, and Progressivism. The instrument uses a six-point Likert scale and demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability among its factors, making it a valuable tool for understanding the philosophical underpinnings of pedagogical practice.

Keywords

Educational Beliefs Questionnaire, EBQ, teacher beliefs, educational philosophies, perennialism, romanticism, progressivism, educational concepts, factor analysis

Authors

Silvernail, D. L.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Educational Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ) is to systematically measure an individual’s, particularly a teacher’s, underlying beliefs about educational practice. This measurement is achieved by framing specific educational issues—such as the role of the teacher, curriculum content, and methods of instruction—within the context of established educational philosophical viewpoints.

The scale aims to provide quantitative data on how strongly participants align with different philosophical orientations (e.g., essentialism, traditionalism, progressivism), thereby helping researchers and educators understand the philosophical congruence between stated beliefs and pedagogical approaches.

Construct

The EBQ measures the construct of Educational Beliefs, which are operationalized through three primary orientations derived from a 5×5 item grid initially conceptualized using five distinct educational philosophies and five educational concepts. The five philosophies used in the scale construction were essentialism, traditionalism, progressivism, reconstructivism, and existentialism.

The five educational concepts addressed by the items are: the purpose of schools, curriculum content, methods of instruction, the role of the teacher, and the role of the student. The final three factors identified by the analysis represent distinct clusters of these beliefs:

• Perennialism Orientation: Reflects essentialism and traditionalism, focusing on cultural heritage transmission and strong teacher authority.
• Romanticism Orientation: Reflects reconstructivism and existentialism, focusing on schools as sources of new social ideas, individual self-awareness, and the teacher as a facilitator.
• Progressivism: Focuses on the role of schools in developing socially conscious adults and the importance of acquiring problem-solving skills.

Validity

The validity of the EBQ was established using two main approaches during its development.

First, Face Validity was confirmed by a panel of three educational theorists who reviewed the initial 25-item instrument. These judges assessed the clarity and accuracy of the items, ensuring they appropriately reflected the intended educational philosophies and concepts.

Second, Construct Validity was determined through various factor analytic procedures applied to the administered data. The identification of a clear, three-factor solution provided empirical evidence that the scale was measuring the hypothesized underlying constructs (Perennialism, Romanticism, and Progressivism) rather than a single, undifferentiated belief structure. The author also suggested an alternative validity check: using a structured interview alongside the EBQ to assess the congruence between participants’ verbal beliefs and their written responses, though this was recommended for future research.

Reliability

The reliability of the Educational Beliefs Questionnaire was assessed using internal consistency measures, specifically Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients, calculated for the total scale and for each of the three resulting factors.

The reported Alpha coefficients indicated acceptable to good reliability across the subscales and the overall instrument:

• Perennialism Orientation: 0.71
• Romanticism Orientation: 0.72
• Progressivism: 0.64
• Total Scale Coefficient: 0.73

While the coefficient for the Progressivism factor was slightly lower than the others, the overall scale reliability of 0.73 suggests that the instrument consistently measures educational beliefs within the sampled population.

Factor Analysis

The final structure of the 20-item EBQ was determined through factor analysis utilizing a varimax rotation. This procedure resulted in a final three-factor solution, which accounted for the variance in the educational beliefs measured.

The three resulting factors, along with their corresponding item counts, are as follows:

1. Perennialism Orientation: Comprising seven items (1–7). This factor reflects a belief system rooted in essentialism and traditionalism, emphasizing structured environments, strong teacher authority, and the transmission of cultural heritage.
2. Romanticism Orientation: Comprising nine items (8–16). This factor reflects beliefs related to reconstructivism and existentialism, stressing the importance of social ideas, individual self-awareness, student freedom, and the teacher as a facilitator.
3. Progressivism: Comprising four items (17–20). This factor aligns with the progressive philosophy, focusing on developing socially conscious adults and the acquisition of essential problem-solving skills and knowledge.

Detailed factor loadings for these three components are reported in the original 1992 publication by Silvernail.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire

Format: 20 items using a six-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English (Original development language)

Population Group: Teachers (K–12)

Age Group: Adult educators (Age range not specified, but K–12 teachers)

Population Details: 610 volunteer teachers spanning kindergarten through 12th grade (K–12) from 11 schools in a state located in northern New England, USA.

Test Methodology: The instrument uses item stems which, in the total instrument, are preceded by an appropriate cue. Responses are recorded on a six-point Likert scale.

Keywords

Educational psychology, teacher attitudes, scale development, psychometrics, essentialism, traditionalism, reconstructivism, existentialism, Likert scale

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified

Correspondence Address: Not specified (Original publication: Silvernail, D. L. (1992). The development and factor structure of the Educational Beliefs Questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement 52:663–67.)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions and Fee: Information regarding current permissions and user fees is not specified in the source material. Users should consult the original author or the journal Educational and Psychological Measurement.

Test Year: 1992 (Year of primary publication and validation)

Reference’s

Adams, C. S. (2011). Demands of dualism: Literacy and content area instructional beliefs in Alabama high schools. PhD dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Kerlinger, F., and Kaya, E. (1959). The construction and factor analytic validation of scales to measure attitudes toward education. Educational and Psychological Measurement 19:13–29.

Silvernail, D. L. (1992). The development and factor structure of the Educational Beliefs Questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement 52:663–67.

Silvernail, D. L., and Goldsberry, L. (1992). The development and validation of an Educational Philosophy Beliefs Questionnaire: Work in Progress. Paper presented at American Educational Research Association.

Items of the Educational Beliefs Questionnaire

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

The following are not complete statements. In the total instrument, an appropriate cue is provided for each of the item stems listed next.

1. Students need more supervision
2. Drill/factual knowledge important
3. Demonstration/recitation essential
4. Teacher strong authority
5. Student receiver of knowledge
6. Need highly structured environment
7. Subjects should represent heritage
8. Curriculum focus on social problems
9. Schools should promote self-awareness
10. Students should have more freedom
11. Students should design program
12. Students should learn from peers
13. Schools sources of new ideas
14. Personality of students important
15. Learning should be experimental
16. Schools should preserve values
17. Students should learn essential skills
18. Students should learn essential knowledge
19. Teachers should be facilitators
20. Schools should foster intellectual