Will we be capable? Creating and validating the AVACIE scale to evaluate pre-service teachers’ self-competence in assessing cyberbullying

ABSTRACT

Future teachers need to be competent in supporting students and families to detect and cope with cyberbullying. The objectives of this study are to create and validate the AVACIE scale to evaluate future teachers’ self-competence. 332 university students from the Primary Education Teacher Training Degree were recruited. The AVACIE scale consists of four factors and a total of 14 items measured on a 10-point Likert scale. Internal consistency was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega. The validity of the scale was confirmed through CFA using the maximum likelihood robust method. Finally, multigroup analysis of structural equations models (SEM) was also included to ascertain the possible role of gender in the model. SEM’s goodness of fit was adequate for both genders, and significant differences were found in the correlation between factors. The AVACIE scale could provide a starting point for understanding how to approach university education to face of cyberbullying.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluation
• pre-service teachers
• teacher competence
• cyberbullying
• gender

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pablo Bautista

Pablo Bautista PhD in Education, is full-time professor at the Faculty of Education at University of Zaragoza. Member of the consolidated research group EDUCAVIVA of the University of Zaragoza. He participates in national R+D+i projects and regional research projects. Specialised in research on cyberbullying, as well as other digital risk behaviours among children and adolescents. He also specialises in the field of learning through the emergence of Collective Intelligence in online environments.

Eva Vicente

Eva Vicente PhD in Psychology, is full-time professor at the Faculty of Education at University of Zaragoza. Member of the consolidated research group EDUCAVIVA of the University of Zaragoza. She participates in international projects, national R+D+i projects, one of them as PI; and regional research projects. Preferred line of research focused on the assessment of people with intellectual disabilities and self-determination, diagnostic assessment, supports, quality of life and self-determination in the field of disability and individualised support planning and promotion of self-determination.

Jacobo Cano

Jacobo Cano PhD is full-time professor at the Faculty of Education at University of Zaragoza. Member of the consolidated research group EDUCAVIVA of the University of Zaragoza. He participates in international projects, national R+D+i projects, two of them as PI; and regional research projects. Member of the Management Team of the Centre for Innovation, Training and Research in Educational Sciences (CIFICE) of the University of Zaragoza. Director of the Edelvives Foundation Chair of Integral Educational Care. Researcher in charge of the EDUCAVIVA Research Group recognised by the Government of Aragon. His main lines of research focus on school coexistence and cybercoexistence and collective intelligence.