Iris M. Riggs

Teaching Portfolios for Support of Teachers’ Professional Growth

Using standards-based teaching portfolios can prompt teachers to fully consider their range of professional abilities. Portfolios can enhance formative, summative, and self-assessment, and can make the teaching experience more tangible and permanent for novice and veteran teachers.

A Microcomputer Beliefs Inventory for Middle School Students: Scale Development and Validation.

AbstractThe Microcomputer Beliefs Inventory (MBI) was developed and validated to measure the self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs of middle school students toward computers. Item analysis, scale reliability assessment, and factor analysis of scale integrity were conducted upon a sample of 269 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. Both scales performed with good reliability (Self-efficacy alpha = 0.90 and Outcome expectancy alpha = 0.85), and factor analysis clearly demonstrated the distinctiveness of the constructs measured. Preliminary evidence of the construct validity of both scales was clearly demonstrated by their predictable covariance with variables such as attitude toward computer, attitude toward science, interest in computer learning, interest in science learning, and expectations for computer learning. A strong relationship between the scales and computer access within the home was revealed by the t-tests. The MBI appears ready to be utilized in future research efforts.

Measurement of Science Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs

Since its development in 1990, the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI, versions A and B) has been used to investigate pre-service and in-service elementary teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning science from multiple international perspectives. This chapter will consider the ways that the STEBI has been used by educational researchers, the contributions STEBI-based research has made to our understanding of science teaching self-efficacy, the potential benefits to the field of science education reaped by investigation of teacher beliefs, and recommendations for future STEBI-supported research.