Teaching Behaviors Questionnaire

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

Comments:

The 36-item Teaching Behaviors Questionnaire (TBQ) could be used for preservice and post service teacher training. In addition, it could also be used to select and screen teachers and principals. Teacher education programs might use the results to identify areas for training.

Scale Construction:

The research on effective teaching was reviewed and the following six categories related to teaching generated the items for the TBQ: instructional design and structure; active teaching; giving information; questioning the student; reacting to student responses; and handling seatwork and homework assignments. A pilot test was conducted on four graduate classes of 60 teachers.

Sample:

Three hundred teachers, 100 principals, 50 college education faculty, and 50 undergraduate education students from Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin participated in the study.

Reliability:

The alpha coefficient for the TBQ was 0.76. Reliabilities for each group are provided. They ranged from a high of 0.78 (college education faculty) to a low of 0.62 (undergraduate education students).

Data Analysis:

Means and standard deviations are presented for each group in the sample. Item-total correlations were computed. The distribution of the data was studied to prove normality. Significant differences among the various groups have been identified.

References

Teaching Behaviors Questionnaire

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 ex- pected 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:

Strongly Disagree = 4; Disagree = 3; Agree = 2; and Strongly Agree = 1. The scoring is reversed 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.