Measuring Science-Teaching Affect: First Results on the Science Teaching Emotions Scales (Sci-TES)

ABSTRACT

Research and national surveys show that deficiencies in elementary science teaching preparation are frustratingly persistent. Understanding positive and negative emotions as they relate to planning and teaching science is relevant for both the well-being of teachers and the quality of their teaching. There needs to be more empirical evidence on how teachers feel about teaching science and how these feelings impact their teaching, partially because research on scales for assessing science-specific emotions has lagged the efforts in other fields. This article presents a pilot study in developing the Science Teaching Emotions Scales (Sci-TES) to address this issue. Sci-TES is based on the Teacher Emotions Scales (TES) and consists of four-item scales for three emotions considered most relevant in teaching: enjoyment, anger, and anxiety. Using data collected from 185 elementary teacher candidates, we tested the Sci-TES for internal validity. The scales proved generally reliable, and confirmatory factor analysis supported internal validity by showing that the three-factor model (enjoyment, anger, and anxiety) was superior to single-factor and two-factor models. As such, the Sci-TES shows promise as a tool to be used in science content or methods courses for teacher candidates.

KEYWORDS:

• Instrument validation
• preservice teachers
• science teaching
• teacher candidates
• teaching emotions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).