An assessment of the convergent and discriminant validity of the BATs checklist and a test of the heuristic-processing explanation of likelihood-of-use ratings
Abstract
In recent years a common method of assessing teachers' classroom management has been the BATs checklist. Although this instrument has been widely used in measuring teachers classroom management efforts little validational work has been conducted on this data collection technique. This dissertation employs three studies assessing the convergent and discriminant validity of the BATs checklist. The convergent validity of the BATs checklist was assessed by comparing teachers' likelihood-of-use ratings with students' and student teachers' ratings of the frequency of teacher BAT use. It was hypothesized that the BATs checklist would fail this test of convergent validity. That hypothesis was not supported. The discriminant validity of the BATs checklist was assessed by correlating the likelihood-of-use ratings of prospective and experienced teachers with those same teachers' perceptions of the social appropriateness of checklist items. Likelihood-of-use ratings should not correlate too highly with the perceived social appropriateness of checklist items because fifty years of direct observation of teacher discipline strategies suggests that teachers routinely employ negative and impolite strategies to correct student misbehavior. The BATs checklist failed this test of discriminant validity. Subjects' likelihood-of-use ratings were highly correlated with the perceived politeness of the items on the BATs checklist. Finally, the heuristic processing explanation of likelihood-of-use ratings was tested. The conditions thought to provoke the heuristic processing of information were manipulated. Subjects in the decrease heuristic processing condition endorsed more impolite and fewer polite BATs than subjects in the control condition.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Burleson, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication|Curricula|Teaching
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