Teaching Behaviors Questionnaire

Abstract

The Teaching Behaviors Questionnaire (TBQ) is a 36-item attitude inventory designed to measure perceptions and attitudes toward research-based effective teaching behaviors. Developed by Marchant and Bowers (1990), the scale is rooted in extensive literature review concerning instructional effectiveness across six defined categories of teaching practice. The TBQ is primarily intended for use in evaluating and training educational personnel, including preservice and post-service teachers, as well as principals. Its utility extends to selection processes and identifying specific areas for professional development within teacher education programs.

Keywords

Teaching behaviors, educational measurement, teacher training, attitude inventory, effective teaching, instructional design, teacher selection.

Authors

G. J. Marchant, N. D. Bowers

Purpose

The primary purpose of the TBQ is to assess the degree of agreement or disagreement held by educational professionals and trainees concerning specific teaching practices that have been empirically linked to student achievement and classroom effectiveness. By quantifying these attitudes, the instrument serves as a diagnostic tool for teacher education programs to measure alignment with validated pedagogical research.

Specifically, the TBQ is useful in several applied settings, including the screening and selection of prospective teachers and principals, and in identifying skill gaps during preservice and in-service training. The results help educators target training interventions where attitudes toward instructional strategies diverge significantly from research-validated practices.

Construct

The TBQ measures attitudes toward research-based effective teaching behaviors. This construct is operationalized across six core instructional domains derived from a comprehensive review of effective teaching literature. These domains represent critical, measurable aspects of classroom management and instructional delivery.

The six underlying categories used to generate the 36 items are:

• Instructional design and structure
• Active teaching
• Giving information
• Questioning the student
• Reacting to student responses
• Handling seatwork and homework assignments

Validity

While the original publication focuses heavily on reliability and descriptive statistics, the initial development phase established strong content validity. Items were generated directly from an extensive review of research concerning effective teaching methodologies, ensuring that the questionnaire covers behaviors empirically linked to positive student outcomes.

The systematic process of reviewing effective teaching literature and categorizing items into six defined areas of instructional practice supports the representativeness of the instrument’s content and its relevance to assessing attitudes concerning core teaching competencies.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the TBQ was measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. For the total sample, the overall alpha coefficient was reported as 0.76, which indicates acceptable internal consistency for research in the educational and psychological domains.

Reliability estimates varied across the specific subgroups involved in the study, reflecting differing levels of consensus or experience among the populations:

• College Education Faculty: 0.78 (Highest reported reliability)
• Undergraduate Education Students: 0.62 (Lowest reported reliability)

Factor Analysis

Formal factor analytic data (such as Exploratory or Confirmatory Factor Analysis) were not explicitly presented in the primary source document. However, the initial scale construction was guided by six predefined conceptual categories of effective teaching behaviors, suggesting a theoretical structure for the instrument.

The statistical analysis reported included the computation of item-total correlations to assess how individual items correlated with the overall scale score, supporting the internal consistency of the measure. The distribution of the data was also studied to confirm normality, allowing for parametric statistical comparisons between the different groups in the sample.

Instrument

Test Type: Attitude Inventory / Self-Report Questionnaire

Format: 36 items, utilizing a four-point Likert-type scale (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree).

Language Available: English (Original research conducted in the US).

Population Group: Educational professionals and trainees (teachers, principals, education faculty, and students).

Age Group: Adult (College level and professional educators).

Population Details: The initial sample included 300 teachers, 100 principals, 50 college education faculty, and 50 undergraduate education students, drawn from educational institutions in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Test Methodology: Comparison of means and standard deviations across groups, assessment of data normality, computation of internal consistency reliability, and item-total correlations.

Keywords

Teacher attitudes, professional development, psychometrics, educational administration, instructional effectiveness, preservice teacher training.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1990 (Primary publication).

Permissions and Fees: Information regarding current commercial permissions or usage fees is not provided in the source material. Researchers should contact the original authors or the journal, Educational and Psychological Measurement, for permission to use the scale.

Reference’s

Marchant, G. J., and Bowers, N. D. (1990). An attitude inventory for research-based effective teaching behaviors. Educational and Psychological Measurement 50:167–74.

Marchant, G. J. (1988a). Attitudes toward research-based effective teaching behaviors. PhD dissertation, Northwestern University.

Marchant, G. J. (1988b). Attitudes toward research-based effective teaching behaviors from teachers, principals, and college faculties and students. Paper presented at Mid-Western Educational Research Association. ERIC ED 303 449. The original PDF can be downloaded here: ERIC ED 303 449.

Marchant, G. J., and Bowers, N. D. (1988). Teacher agreement with research-based effective teaching behaviors. Paper presented at American Educational Research Association. ERIC ED 302 503. The original PDF can be downloaded here: ERIC ED 302 503.

Items of the Teaching Behaviors Questionnaire

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

1. The teacher should allow the students to figure out the main idea of a lesson on their own.
2. The teacher should provide drill and practice after each skill or section taught.
3. The teacher should explain assignments and go over practice examples with the students before they are allowed to work independently.
4. The teacher should monitor the progress of each student daily.
5. The teacher should spend most of the class time teaching the student as one whole group.
6. The teacher should sit at the teacher’s desk while the students are doing seat work, and have students come up to the desk when they need help.
7. The teacher should call on both volunteering and nonvolunteering students after asking a question in class.
8. The teacher should redirect relevant student questions to the class and incorporate comments into the lesson.
9. The teacher should expect all of the students to master the course content.
10. The teacher should quickly ask the class another question when a student gives an incorrect answer to a question asked in class.
11. The teacher should not let the students know which assignments are for a grade and which are for practice.
12. The teacher should introduce classroom rules and procedures one-at-a-time as they become necessary throughout the year.
13. The teacher should make class presentations of less than 20 minutes.
14. The teacher should wait at least 3 seconds after asking a question in class before calling on a student.
15. The teacher should convey a strong sense of enthusiasm to the students.
16. The teacher should receive 60 to 80 percent correct by most of the students on assignments that the students are expected to work on independently.
17. The teacher should rephrase the question to the student when an incorrect answer is given in class.
18. The teacher should continue to work on problem material when performance on assignments is poor.
19. The teacher should only call on volunteering students after asking a question in class.
20. The teacher should move around the classroom during the time that the students are working independently at their seats.
21. The teacher should stick to the lesson regardless of student comments.
22. The teacher should primarily emphasize academic instruction in the classroom.
23. The teacher should expect about half of the students to master the curriculum.
24. The teacher should not use praise excessively in the classroom.
25. The teacher should save drill and practice until the students have a number of skills to practice.
26. The teacher should often use unfamiliar and abstract words in classroom lessons and presentations.
27. The teacher should inform the students exactly what determines the grade on an assignment.
28. The teacher should overtly acknowledge correct answers that a student gives to a question asked in class.
29. The teacher should expect the students to figure out instructions as part of an assignment.
30. The teacher should identify the main ideas of a lesson during the lesson and at the end of the lesson.
31. The teacher should continue to the next scheduled unit when performance is poor, and in the future the teacher should avoid material similar to that which the students had problems.
32. The teacher should receive 90 to 100 percent correct by most of the students on assignments that students are expected to work on independently.
33. The teacher should spend time at the beginning of the school year teaching classroom rules and procedures.
34. The teacher should monitor the progress of each individual student every two to four weeks.
35. The teacher should begin lessons and presentations to the class with a review or an overview of the material.
36. The teacher should immediately call on a student after asking a question in class.

Scoring

The scale uses a four-point Likert-type response format: Strongly Disagree = 4; Disagree = 3; Agree = 2; and Strongly Agree = 1. The scoring is reversed (i.e., 1=4, 2=3, 3=2, 4=1) for the following items: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, and 35.