Technical adequacy of measuring teachers' knowledge of dyslexia.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 9511375 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1099-0909 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 10769242 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Dyslexia Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Chichester, England : John Wiley & Sons, c1995-

Dyslexia*/diagnosis; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results ; School Teachers ; Educational Status ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Given the rapid growth in educational policies targeting educators' knowledge of dyslexia, this study explored the technical adequacy of a common instrument for measuring that knowledge. The responses of 1141 preservice teachers were scored in three ways: polytomously with the original 4-point Likert scale, dichotomously as true-false, and dichotomously as though the options were multiple choice. An exploratory factor analysis suggested at least one-third of the items needed to be removed. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested a one-factor model with polytomous scoring had the best fit to the data, but only six items loaded. All models demonstrated unacceptable internal consistency reliability (<0.70). Because no technically adequate version of the measure was identified, questions remain about basing policy on scores from these instruments. However, the findings indicated ways this type of measure might be improved.
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000520 Iowa Department of Education

Keywords: dyslexia; educational policy; factor analysis; teacher knowledge

Date Created: 20240318 Date Completed: 20240319 Latest Revision: 20240319

20240319

10.1002/dys.1765

38497366