Confirmatory factor analysis of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory

• Published in: British journal of educational psychology Vol. 76; no. 2; pp. 405 - 419
• Main Authors: Prosser, Michael, Trigwell, Keith
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-06-2006; British Psychological Society
• Subjects: Academic staff attitudes; Approaches; Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI); Biological and medical sciences; Cognitive Style; College Faculty; Concept formation; Confirmatory factor analysis; Discriminant analysis; Educational psychology; Factor Analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Factor Structure; Factor structures; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Higher Education; Humans; Individualised teaching; Information transfer; Learning; Learning environment; Learning experience; Learning strategies; Male; Orientation. Evaluation; Physical Sciences; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; Reproducibility of Results; Research reports; Schools; Science - education; Science Teachers; Sciences; Student teacher relationship; Students; Studies; Teacher; Teacher attitudes; Teacher centred teaching; Teacher characteristics; Teacher evaluation; Teaching; Teaching - methods; Teaching - standards; Teaching styles; University teaching; Human; Test validation; Questionnaire; Confirmatory factor analysis; Teacher; Psychometrics; Student; Teaching
• ISSN: 0007-0998; 2044-8279
• DOI: 10.1348/000709905X43571

Background. The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) was developed to explore the relationship between students' approaches to learning, and teachers' approaches to teaching in the physical sciences in higher education. It is increasingly being used in other contexts. Aim. To analyse the factor structure of the ATI. Method. Confirmatory factor analysis. Sample. Inventory responses from over 1,000 university teachers, from four different countries and a wide range of disciplines, experience and teaching level (year of students' study) were used as the sample. Results. Cronbach's alpha values of the 2-scale inventory were acceptable for scale reliability, but not for the 4-scale structure. A good fit to the intended 2-factor structure was obtained by confirmatory factor analysis. Both information transmission/teacher-focused and conceptual change/student-focused scales had well identified intention and strategy subspaces. Conclusion. The ATI has been developed as a relational indicator of two dimensions of approaches to teaching. It is not intended for use in gathering a full, rich self-report of teaching, or in non-relational contexts. However, it has now been used in a number of different contexts, including different subject areas and cultures. There is evidence in this paper that in those contexts its factor structure is, in the main, consistent with the original design. This analysis also suggests ways that the ATI could be improved. [Author abstract, ed]