Using Structural Equation Modeling to Assess a Model for Measuring Creative Teaching Perceptions and Practices in Higher Education

Abstract

Considering the differences in academic backgrounds and majors, diversity of faculty members’ perceptions, and complete shift to digital education, energy must be expended toward ensuring that the teaching practices of faculty members are innovative and distinctive by providing advanced methods and models for evaluation operations. Thus, this study aimed to assess a model for measuring perceptions of both the teaching profession and creative teaching practices among faculty members that explains the relationship between faculty members’ perceptions about teaching and their creative practices that was constructed to explain the nature of this relationship and enable the development of the faculty members’ academic and professional performance. Two instruments were developed in this study, and the study sample consisted of 250 faculty members. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the proposed model. The results of the modified construction model showed an improvement in the goodness of fit indicators, which points toward this being the best model for interpreting the study data. The developed assessment model and scales can be used as tools to measure faculty members’ perceptions and predict the improvement of their creative teaching practices as well as for their professional development during distance learning.