A Scale to Measure Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Deaf-Blindness Education

Abstract

Introduction The Teacher Efficacy in Deafblindness Education Scale (TEDE) was developed to expand the construct of self-efficacy to teach children with deaf-blindness. Methods Eighty-seven special educators in the United States were asked to rate their confidence to perform a variety of tasks that are associated with teaching children who are deaf-blind on 36 Likert-type items and to respond to open-ended questions on teaching children who are deaf-blind. Results Analyses based on item response modeling indicated strong internal consistency and split-half reliability coefficients. Construct modeling indicated good respondent and item fit. Discussion The study provides evidence of the validity of a construct of teacher self-efficacy to teach children with deaf-blindness. Suggestions for future iterations of the TEDE were offered in addition to suggestions for future research on self-efficacy in teaching children with deaf-blindness. Implications for practitioners The development of the TEDE and the analysis of its scores can help educators to understand self-efficacy and its importance in supporting students with deaf-blindness. Practitioners who provide technical service to teachers of students with deaf-blindness may find value in the construct of self-efficacy and the TEDE as a tool to measure it.