Music teachers' concern of inclusive music teaching scale: development, validation and correlates

• Main Author: Chan, Edmund Sze Shing
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: HKBU Institutional Repository 2016
• Subjects: Children with disabilities;Education;Instruction and study (Primary);Music;Special education
• Online Access: https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/308; https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1308&context=etd_oa

In view of the lack of an appropriate instrument to measure primary school music teachers' concerns about teaching music to students with special educational needs in inclusive classrooms in Hong Kong, this research intends to fill the research gap by developing and validating the Music Teachers' Concerns of Inclusive Music Teaching Scale (CIMTS) for addressing these concerns. Specifically, this study aims at: (1) Developing and validating the CIMTS, (2) Assessing its psychometric properties, (3) Exploring primary school music teachers' levels of concern about inclusive music teaching, and (4) Predicting their CIMTS scores with a number of psychological, personality, and environmental variables which are hypothesized to correlate with the CIMTS. Different methods with two samples of primary school music teachers were involved in the development, validation, and prediction of the CIMTS. Regarding development, sequential mixed method involving qualitative analysis was employed to generate, pilot-test, and refine the initial pool of question items. Concerning validation (N = 309), quantitative analysis using item analysis was conducted to evaluate and refine the CIMTS, assessing its internal consistency and construct validity. Specifically, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, SEM estimation, and Multi-trait and Multi-method analysis were performed to establish evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Referring to prediction (N = 224), hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine if the chosen psychological, personality, and environmental variables in the hypothesized model were significant predictors of the scores on the CIMTS. Results indicated that the 25-item CIMTS possessed adequate evidence of validity as well as satisfactory reliability regarding the overall scale and its five factors (Learning Support, Learning Obstacle, Resource, Training, as well as Curricular Design and Assessment). While the level of primary school music teachers' concerns for the Resource factor was found to be the highest among the five factors, Openness-to-Experience and School Climate were shown to be the strongest predictors of their scores on the CIMTS in the hypothesized model. With the development and validation of the CIMTS, this research not only filled the research gap in inclusive music education, but also aroused policy-makers' and music educators' awareness of teachers' needs for formal training in special education and for resource allocated to inclusive music teaching. For future research, with addition of new items, the CIMTS could be expanded in its domain coverage, refined, and revalidated with different samples. Further exploration of possible correlates of the CIMTS should be pursued.