THE EXAMINATION OF MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE OF MOTIVATIONS TO BECOME A TEACHER SCALE IN TERMS OF DEPARTMENT AND GENDER

Serhat Aydin, Murat Ibrahim Yazar

Abstract: Measurement instruments used in psychology or education are expected to work similarly in different groups in order to make meaningful comparisons and assessments across these groups. This issue is handled via conducting measurement invariance (MI) tests on data collecting tools. Usually only a single parameter is addressed in MI studies and one of the most frequently examined parameter is gender. In Turkey, measurement invariance studies are still limited in number and they concentrate also on the gender variable. In this study, factor structure of 9-items Motivations to Become a Teacher Scale developed for international Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) and measurement invariance of these factors in terms of department and gender were examined. For this aim, the 5-stage method recommended by Vandenberg and Lance was used. This method is based on the progressive application of different models from the least restricted through the most restricted one. The study sample consisted of 1878 preservice teachers from four different departments from 16 different universities randomly selected in Turkey. The data was analyzed using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis in Lisrel 8.80 software. In order to determine invariance, several fit indices were used together. According to 5-stage analysis outputs, it was concluded that the scale had two factors such as “intrinsic motivation” and “extrinsic motivation”, these factors had measurement invariance in terms of department and gender and the Scale could be used to compare different departments and sexes.

Keywords: Motivations to Become a Teacher, Measurement Invariance (MI), Preservice Teachers, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2017.0616007