Teacher Locus of Control

Rose, J. S., and Medway, F. J. (1981). Measurement of teachers’ beliefs in their control over student outcome. Journal of Educational Research 74:185–89.

Comments: The 28-item Teacher Locus of Control (TLC) assesses teachers’ perceptions about internal or external classroom control. The scale is internally consistent and has higher correlations with classroom teaching behaviors than Rotter’s I-E scale.

Scale Construction: The original TLC contained 32 positive or success situations and 32 negative or failure situations. Three judges examined the items and categorized them as I+ or I−. They also looked at the clarity of the items. After each administration of the TLC, items were kept if they loaded on the appropriate scale, and if their biserial correla- tions with the total scale were significant at the 0.05 level. Out of the 28 items, 14 items describe positive (success) situations, while the other 14 describe negative (failure) situations.

Sample: Prior to the final version of the TLC, four samples that included 183 elementary school teachers completed three versions of the scale. The final sample consisted of 89 female teachers who taught the fourth grade.

Reliability: KR20 reliabilities were 0.71 (student success) and 0.81 (student failure).

Validity: One validation study examined the relationship between locus of control and the implementation of innovative educational practices. A second validation study looked at the relationship between the scores on the TLC and the classroom behavior of fourth grade teachers. The results of both validation studies demonstrated that the TLC was a better predictor of teacher and student behavior than Rotter’s I-E scale (a more general assessment of control beliefs).

Factor Analysis: A principal factoring with a varimax rotation yielded two factors: student success (I+) and student failure (I−).

Data Analysis: Means and standard deviations are reported for the sample of 89 teachers. In addition, t-tests were per- formed to see if there were any significant differences related to teachers’ race, socioeconomic level of the students, and the geographic location of the school. The only significant relationship was found on the I+ scale. Teachers in low SES schools scored significantly higher on the I+ scale than teachers in high SES schools.

References

Rose, J. S. (1978). Relationships among teacher locus of control, teacher and student behavior, and student achievement. PhD dis- sertation, University of South Carolina.

Thomson, J. R. Jr., and Handley, H. M. (1990). Relationship between teacher self-concept and teacher efficacy. Paper presented at Mid-South Educational Research Association. ERIC ED 327 508.

Teacher Locus of Control

1. When the grades of your students improve, it is more likely
   1. because you found ways to motivate the students, or
   2. because the students were trying harder to do
2. Suppose you had difficulties in setting up learning centers for students in your Would this probably happen
   1. because you lacked the appropriate materials, or
   2. because you didn’t spend enough time in developing activities to go into the center?
3. Suppose your students did not appear to be benefiting from a more individualized method of The reason for this would probably be
   1. because you were having some problems managing this type of instruction, or
   2. because the students in your class were such that they needed a more traditional kind of
4. When a student gets a better grade on his report card than he usually gets, is it
   1. because the student was putting more effort into his schoolwork, or
   2. because you found better ways of teaching that student?
5. If the students in your class became disruptive and noisy when you left them alone in the room for five minutes, would this happen
   1. because you didn’t leave them interesting work to do while you were gone, or
   2. because the students were more noisy that day than they usually are?
6. When some of your students fail a math test, it is more likely
   1. because they weren’t attending to the lesson, or
   2. because you didn’t use enough examples to illustrate the

7. Suppose you were successful at using learning centers with your class of 30 Would this occur
   1. because you worked hard at it, or
   2. because your students easily conformed to the new classroom procedure?
8. When a student pulls his or grade up from a “C” to a “B,” it is more likely
   1. because you came up with an idea to motivate the student, or
   2. because the student was trying harder to do
9. Suppose you are teaching a student a particular concept in arithmetic or math and the student has trouble learning Would this happen
   1. because the student wasn’t able to understand it, or
   2. because you couldn’t explain it very well?
10. When a student does better in school than he usually does, is it more likely
    1. because the student was trying harder, or
    2. because you tried hard to encourage the student to do better?
11. If you couldn’t keep your class quiet, it would probably be
    1. because the students came to school more rowdy than usual, or
    2. because you were so frustrated that you weren’t able to settle them
12. Suppose a play put on by your class was voted the “Best Class Play of the Year” by students and faculty in your Would it be
    1. because you put in a lot of time and effort as the director, or
    2. because the students were
13. Suppose it were the week before Easter vacation and you were having some trouble keeping order in your class- This would more likely happen
    1. because you weren’t putting extra effort into keeping the students under control, or
    2. because the students were more uncontrollable than
14. If one of your students couldn’t do a class assignment, would it be
    1. because the student wasn’t paying attention during the class lesson, or
    2. because you gave the student an assignment that wasn’t on his or her level?
15. Suppose you wanted to teach a series of lessons on Mexico, but the lessons didn’t turn out as well as you had ex- This would more likely happen
    1. because the students weren’t that interested in learning about Mexico, or
    2. because you didn’t put enough effort into developing the
16. Suppose a student who does not typically participate in class begins to volunteer his or her This would more likely happen
    1. because the student finally encountered a topic of interest to him or her, or
    2. because you tried hard to encourage the student to volunteer his or her
17. Suppose one of your students cannot remain on task for a particular Would this be more likely to happen
    1. because you gave the student a task that was somewhat less interesting than most tasks, or
    2. because the student was unable to concentrate on his or her schoolwork that day?
18. Suppose you were unable to devise an instructional system as requested by the principal, which would accommodate the “needs of individual students” in your This would most likely happen
    1. because there were too many students in your class, or
    2. because you didn’t have enough knowledge or experience with individualized instructional
19. If the students in your class perform better than they usually do on a test, would this happen
    1. because the students studied a lot for the test, or
    2. because you did a good job of teaching the subject area?

20. When the performance of a student in your class appears to be slowly deteriorating, it is usually
    1. because you weren’t trying hard enough to motivate him or her, or
    2. because the student was putting less effort into his or her
21. Suppose a new student was assigned to your class, and this student had a difficult time making friends with his or her Would it be more likely
    1. that most of the other students did not make an effort to be friends with the new student, or
    2. that you were not trying hard enough to encourage the other students to be more friendly toward the newcomer?
22. If the students in your class performed better on a standardized achievement test given at the end of the year com- pared to students you had last year, it would probably be
    1. because you put more effort into teaching this year, or
    2. because this year’s class of students were somewhat smarter than last year’s.
23. Suppose, one day, you find yourself reprimanding one of your students more often than Would this be more likely to happen
    1. because that student was misbehaving more than usual that day, or
    2. because you were somewhat less tolerant than you usually are?
24. Suppose one of your underachievers does his or her homework better than This would probably happen
    1. because the student tried hard to do the assignment, or
    2. because you tried hard to explain how to do the
25. Suppose one of your students began to do better schoolwork than he usually Would this happen
    1. because you put much effort into helping the student do better, or
    2. because the student was trying harder to do well in school?

Scoring: The TLC uses a forced-choice format. Half of the items represent positive (success) situations, while the other half represents negative (failure) situations. Separate scores are obtained for student success (I+) and student failure (I−).