Teacher Role Survey

Abstract

The Teacher Role Survey (TRS) is a specialized psychological instrument designed to assess control expectancies within the professional roles of elementary and secondary school educators. Originally developed by Maes and Anderson (1985), the revised version consists of 24 items presented in a forced-choice format. The TRS measures the extent to which teachers perceive outcomes related to their professional environment—such as recognition, relations, and curriculum freedom—as resulting from internal efforts (personal control) or external factors (environmental constraints).

Keywords

Teacher Role Survey, Locus of Control, Educational Psychology, Control Expectancies, Teacher Assessment, Scale Development, Educational Research

Authors

Maes, W. R., Anderson, D. E.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the TRS is to provide a reliable and valid measure of teacher locus of control as it specifically relates to the various aspects of the teaching profession. This measure allows researchers and practitioners to understand how teachers attribute success and failure across critical domains, including interactions with students, administrative support, and societal attitudes.

The scale helps differentiate between teachers who hold an internal orientation (believing their efforts directly impact outcomes) and those with an external orientation (believing outcomes are dictated by external forces like administration, parents, or policy). The revised 24-item version focuses on providing a concise and psychometrically sound assessment of these control expectancies.

Construct

The central construct measured by the Teacher Role Survey is Teacher Locus of Control. Locus of control, a concept derived from social learning theory, describes how individuals perceive the causes of life events. In the context of the TRS, this construct is operationalized through 14 specific categories relevant to a teacher’s work environment:

• Primary Categories (8 items each in the initial pool): Work with students, relations with teachers, sense of achievement, curriculum and program freedom, responsibility, recognition, and attitudes of society and parents.
• Secondary Categories (1 to 5 items each in the initial pool): Administration, personnel policies, salary, working conditions, workload, security, and social service.

Each item in the final survey is a forced-choice pair, contrasting an internal belief statement against an external belief statement, thereby directly assessing the teacher’s perceived control over their professional role outcomes.

Validity

The validity of the Teacher Role Survey was established through systematic development procedures and empirical testing.

• Content Validity: Content validity was ensured through the rigorous process used to develop the initial 75-item pool, which covered 14 distinct categories relevant to the teacher’s role, ensuring comprehensive domain coverage.
• Construct Validity: Construct validity was investigated using factor analytic procedures. The results, detailed further in the Factor Analysis section, supported the theoretical structure by identifying salient factors that align logically with the scale’s intended measurement of control expectancies in specific professional areas.

Reliability

Reliability estimates for the Teacher Role Survey demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and temporal stability, particularly for the 32-item preliminary version.

• Internal Consistency: The alpha coefficient for the 32-item TRS was determined to be 0.86, based on a cross-validation sample of 166 teachers. This value indicates high reliability across the items.
• Test-retest reliability: The stability of the measure over time was assessed using two different groups and intervals:
  • A two-week interval yielded a test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.75 (N=43 graduate students).
  • A three-week interval yielded a coefficient of 0.62 (N=34 student teachers and student teacher supervisors).

Factor Analysis

The scale structure was examined using a principal components factor analysis with a varimax rotation on the initial item pool.

The analysis initially identified twelve factors. However, upon closer scrutiny, only the first four factors were retained for interpretation, as they exhibited factor loadings of 0.35 or higher and fit within the established logical framework for the survey’s construction. These four empirically supported factors represent distinct dimensions of the teacher’s role environment where locus of control is measured:

1. Recognition
2. Teaching/Learning Process
3. Relations with Teachers
4. Attitudes of Parents and Society

Scoring and Interpretation

The final 24-item survey uses a dichotomous scoring system, resulting in a total score ranging from 0 to 24. A higher score indicates a more external locus of control regarding the teacher’s professional role.

Each of the following statements receives a score of one point, representing an external belief:

1a, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 6a, 7b, 8b, 9b, 10b, 11a, 12a, 13b, 14a, 15a, 16b, 17a, 18b, 19a, 20b, 21b, 22a, 23a, 24a.

Instrument

Test Type: Psychological Inventory/Self-Report Scale

Format: Forced-choice (Dichotomous)

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: Teachers (Elementary and Secondary School)

Age Group: Adult (Teaching Professionals and Graduate Education Students)

Population Details: The original sample used for validation consisted of 321 teacher volunteers who were either currently teaching or enrolled in graduate education courses.

Test Methodology: The scale uses 24 items, each presenting two contrasting statements (one internal, one external). Respondents choose the statement that best reflects their belief. The original item pool consisted of 75 items across 14 categories, and the initial results indicated that item sequencing influenced responses, leading to careful refinement of the final 24-item instrument.

Keywords

Teacher Recognition, Educational Research, Principal Components Factor Analysis, Varimax Rotation, Scale Development, Elementary School Teachers, Secondary School Teachers

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: N/A

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1985 (Publication of revised scale).

Permissions/Access: Information regarding the scale’s development, including an earlier version, is available through the ERIC system. The original PDF describing the scale’s development can be accessed via ERIC ED 240 153.

Reference’s

Maes, W. R., and Anderson, D. E. (1985). A measure of teacher locus of control. Journal of Educational Research 79:27–32.

Anderson, D. E., and Maes, W. R. (1986). Teacher locus of control and teacher characteristics. Unpublished manuscript.

Guskey, T. R. (1981). Measurement of the responsibility teachers assume for academic successes and failures in the classroom. Journal of Teacher Education 32:44–51.

Maes, W. R., and Anderson, D. E. (1983). The Teacher Role Survey: A measure of teacher locus of control. ERIC ED 240 153.

Items of the Teacher Role Survey

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

1. a. Teachers will never be able to negotiate for satisfactory personnel policies.
b. It appears that teachers are just now on the brink of a period of improved negotiations over personnel policies.
2. a. Teachers are given recognition in proportion to the quality of their performance.
b. Given society’s attitude toward teaching, there is really very little a teacher can do to gain the recognition deserved.
3. a. If I work hard and perform effectively, administrators are very supportive of my work.
b. I find that principals and superintendents base their support of a teacher more on whim and hearsay than on quality of work.
4. a. Parents will cooperate with teachers if teachers put forth skillful effort.
b. Teachers have reason to be pessimistic about getting parents “on their side.”
5. a. One of the rewards of teaching is the chance to put one’s abilities to work.
b. School systems seem to invent obstacles to keep teachers from doing their best.
6. a. In this day and age, teachers are deprived of a strong sense of personal responsibility.
b. Teaching is a profession that enables one to develop a strong sense of personal responsibility.

7. a. The more one teaches effectively, the more one is delegated responsibility for classroom management.
b. With all the “snoopervisors” in schools, teachers are watched over regardless of their competence level.
8. a. To get duly recognized, a teacher needs only exert the effort to perform well.
b. One of the problems with teaching is that there is little recognition even when it is earned.
9. a. Teachers touch the lives of pupils and parents in effective ways, and a natural by-product is personal and profes- sional recognition.
b. One certainly does not choose teaching for the professional recognition it offers.
10. a. It is clear that a teacher can take delight in creative development of learning experiences.
b. More and more learning experiences are “canned” and mandated for the teacher.
11. a. Schools have been and perhaps always will be rather uninteresting, oppressive places in which to work.
b. The fact that teachers are so influential at the building level enables them to greatly affect their working conditions.
12. a. All about that is required of a teacher is the ability to follow directions from above.
b. The longer I stay in teaching, the more I feel that my presence in the classroom makes a difference.
13. a. The long-term negative attitude of our society toward teachers need not persist into the future.
b. The negative attitude of society toward teaching is something that just has to be endured.
14. a. Students are becoming increasingly independent and unruly.
b. If teachers really put themselves into the task, it is possible for them to exert meaningful influence on students.
15. a. There is always more work to be done by a teacher than can possibly be finished.
b. Careful planning and scheduling of time makes the job of teaching more manageable.
16. a. I feel that I am delegated the responsibility to do my job as I see fit.
b. I feel that my responsibility as a teacher is eroded by too many guidelines and supervisors.
17. a. Because a teacher’s best efforts go unobserved behind closed doors, it is natural that due recognition is not received.
b. In spite of the criticism leveled at schools, effective teachers receive due recognition from within and outside of schools.
18. a. Teachers will be treated as responsible professionals to the degree that they earn such treatment.
b. There is too great a tendency to treat teachers like children.
19. a. Teaching is a profession in which a sense of achievement is often missing because it is difficult to know the effect of one’s work.
b. One of the advantages of teaching is that one is the “manager of the classroom” and thus can arrange things so as to get a clear sense of what has been accomplished.
20. a. Being “a part of the group” of teachers in a building depends on one’s behavior.
b. Every school has its pecking order which determines those teachers who are accepted and those who are not.
21. a. Teaching is one of the last remaining job fields that permits genuine giving to others.
b. It is increasingly difficult for teachers to realize the joy of giving to others when they receive so little in return.
22. a. Parents are easily incited to discontent toward teachers.
b. I have never met a parent who couldn’t be won over by a sincere approach.
23. a. It seems inevitable that parents are quick to give negative feedback to teachers, but reluctant to dispense praise.
b. Parents appreciate teachers for work well done.
24. a. School administrators are highly responsive to directives “from above” but not very responsive to influence from teachers.
b. Teachers are heard and responded to by administrators to the degree that they effectively plead their case.