Developing and Validating a Teacher Effectiveness Scale for Iranian English Teachers at the Elementary Level
Keywords:
Teacher effectiveness, elementary-level EFL teaching, scale development, communicative skills, emotional skills, pedagogical skillsAbstract
Purpose: This study aimed to develop and validate a multidimensional teacher effectiveness scale tailored to Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers working at the elementary level.
Methods and Materials: The study employed a mixed-methods design with an initial qualitative phase followed by a quantitative validation phase. In the qualitative stage, a grounded theory approach was used to identify the core components of teacher effectiveness based on existing literature and prior empirical findings related to elementary-level EFL teaching. These components were used to construct a 21-item Teacher Effectiveness Scale structured on a five-point Likert format. In the quantitative phase, the scale was administered to 200 Iranian elementary-level EFL teachers selected through available sampling. Data were analyzed using Cronbach’s alpha to assess internal consistency, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the underlying factor structure, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the measurement model and overall model fit.
Findings: Inferential analyses supported a three-factor model of teacher effectiveness consisting of communicative skills, emotional skills, and elementary-level teaching skills. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceeding accepted thresholds for the total scale and all subscales. EFA results confirmed a clear and interpretable factor structure, while CFA indicated excellent model fit based on multiple absolute and incremental fit indices. All items loaded significantly on their intended factors, and the three latent variables showed strong, significant contributions to overall teacher effectiveness.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that teacher effectiveness at the elementary EFL level is a multidimensional construct encompassing communicative, emotional, and pedagogical competencies, and that the proposed scale is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing teacher effectiveness among Iranian elementary-level EFL teachers.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Shadi Moradzadeh Fard (Author); Mohammad Iman Askari; Neda Fatehi Rad (Author)
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