Teacher Education Instruments

Teacher/Faculty Surveys

Instrument 11: Teacher Attitude Survey

Project: Anonymous 2

Funding Source: NSF: Teacher Enhancement (ESIE)

Purpose: To assess teacher's attitudes toward science teaching

Administered To: 16 K-8 teachers who were participating in the integrated project (science and other disciplines)

Topics Covered:

• Attitudes & Beliefs (Teacher/Faculty): project impact, student attitudes, student performance, student understanding
• Instructional Practices: pedagogy
• Instructional Preferences: mentoring/support
• Perceptions (Teacher/Faculty): methods
• Self-Assessment (Teacher/Faculty): application of instructional methods, content knowledge, professional performance, understanding of instructional methods

Format/Length: 25 closed-ended items. Each item is a statement that teachers rate on a 5-point Likert scale that ranges from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree."

Please indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with each statement below by circling the appropriate letters to the right of each statement.

I.  Activities and achievements:  CIRCLE ONE

1.	When a student does better than usual in science, it is often because the teacher exerted a little extra effort.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
2.	I am continually finding better ways to teach science.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
3.	Even when I try very hard, I do not teach science as well as I do most subjects.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
4.	When the science grades of students improve, it is often due to their teacher having found a more effective teaching approach.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
5.	I know the step necessary to teach science concepts effectively.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
6.	I am not very effective in monitoring science experiments.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
7.	If students are underachieving in science, it is most likely due to ineffective science teaching.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
8.	I generally teach science ineffectively.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
9.	The inadequacy of a student's science background can be overcome by good teaching.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
10.	The low science achievement scores of some students cannot generally be blamed on their teachers.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
11.	When a low-achieving child progresses in science, it is usually due to extra attention given by the teacher.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
12.	I understand science concepts well enough to be effective in teaching elementary science.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
13.	Increased effort in science teaching produces little change in some students' science achievement.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
14.	The teacher is generally responsible for the achievement of students in science.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
15.	Students' achievement in science is directly related to their teacher's effectiveness in science teaching.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
16.	If parents comment that their child is showing more interest in science at school, it is probably due to the performance of the child's teacher.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
17.	I find it difficult to explain to students why science experiments work.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
18.	I am typically able to answer students' science questions.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
19.	I wonder if I have the necessary skills to teach science.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
20.	Effectiveness in science teaching has little influence on the achievement of students with low motivation.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
21.	Given a choice, I would not invite the principal to evaluate my science teaching.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
22.	When a student has difficulty understanding a science concept, I am usually at a loss as to how to help the student understand it better.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
23.	When teaching science, I usually welcome student questions.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
24.	I do not know what to do to turn students on to science.	SA	A	UN	D	SD
25.	Even teachers with good science teaching abilities cannot help some kids to learn science.	SA	A	UN	D	SD