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The current study explored the effects of two teaching styles, authoritative and authoritarian, on students' mathematics motivation. The two motivational constructs examined were intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Data were collected from 425 Omani 8th grade students (males = 202/females = 223, mean age = 13.44, SD = 0.79). Through two questionnaires, students reported their perceptions of their math teachers' teaching styles, and their own motivational orientation towards mathematics. Multiple regression models were used to analyze the data. The findings suggest the two teaching styles play a role in predicting students' mathematics motivation. An authoritative teaching style seems to be the better predictor of the two motivational constructs, when compared with an authoritarian style. Eighteen percent of the variance was accounted for in the intrinsic motivation model, compared with only five percent in the extrinsic motivation model. The educational and cultural contexts were discussed in relation to the research results.

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A scale for measuring self-efficacy for teaching mathematics in grades 5 to 10 was developed in this study for teachers in Oman. The participants were 328 mathematics teachers randomly selected from five educational governorates in the Sultanate of Oman. Factorial structure of the scale revealed three subscales: selfefficacy for understanding the mathematics content, self-efficacy for teaching the mathematics content, and general teaching self-efficacy. The three subscales showed strong internal consistency and sufficient evidence of construct validity and concurrent validity. The scale has potential uses for both educational and research purposes.Keywords: self-efficacy, teaching efficacy, mathematics efficacy, validity, reliability, scale development 144 Development and Validation of a Scale for Measuring …International Journal of Instruction, July 2017 • Vol.10, No.3 INTRODUCTIONSelf-efficacy is concerned with individuals' beliefs in their capabilities to conduct courses of action required to achieve given outcomes (Bandura, 2006, p. 1). It influences the choice of activities individuals make, the effort they invest, and how long they will persist in stressful situations (Pajares, 1997). A strong sense of efficacy can be motivating and persevering while a weak sense of efficacy can be exhausting and lead one to evade the difficult tasks (Pajares, 1997).Bandura (2006) has cautioned researchers attempting to measure self-efficacy in that there is no global measure of self-efficacy. An adequate analysis of the self-efficacy requires a detailed assessment of the level, generality, and strength of self-efficacy. The level of self-efficacy refers to variations across levels of task difficulty. The generality of the self-efficacy is concerned with the transfer of self-efficacy beliefs across activities. The strength of self-efficacy is measured by degrees of certainty that one can perform given tasks. These three dimensions of self-efficacy are measured using items that are task specific and vary in difficulty as well as degrees of confidence (Pajares, 1997;Zimmerman, 2000).In the context of the teaching profession, teaching efficacy beliefs refer to teachers' judgements in their capabilities to conduct specific teaching tasks required to influence student learning (Dellinger, Bobbett, Olivier, & Ellett, 2008). It has been documented that teacher self-efficacy beliefs are powerful predictors of a variety of student-and teacher-related outcomes (Aldhafri, 2016;Garvis, 2013). As such, the measurement of teacher self-efficacy has received notable attention in educational research. Numerous instruments have been created to measure the construct. However, the majority of them were not consistent with Bandura's theoretical framework for measuring self-efficacy in terms of task specificity, thereby causing misinterpretation about the nature of selfefficacy itself (Tschannen-Moran, Hoy, & Hoy, 1998). Hence, Bandura (1997) developed Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSS) consisting of 30 items divided into seven subscales: (a...

Background: Different biological and environmental factors may play roles in the development of self-concept. Many studies have focused on gender or age differences in self-concept separately. Objective: The current study aimed at examining the effects of grade, gender and their interaction on the development of four self-concept dimensions (appearance, school, parent-relations, and peer-relations) among Omani adolescents. Methods: The study sample was 651 middle and high school students from two districts in Oman. The students were enrolled in grades 7, 9 and 11. The study utilized the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ-1, Marsh, 1988) to assess students' levels in the self-concepts dimensions. The study adopted the descriptive design using Two Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Results: The study results demonstrated that grade and gender interaction affected appearance self-concept development; however, this interaction had no effects on the other dimensions. Moreover, gender and grade differences were found in some dimensions of self-concept. Conclusion: The study suggested that the effects of grade level and gender varied based on the self-concept dimensions. Adolescents' self-concept should be given a careful attention for its important role in providing healthy outcomes.

The present study examined the predictive role of students’ perceptions of parenting styles on their academic efficacy beliefs. This relationship was examined using two large sets of national data that were collected from school and university students to see how the relationship between parenting styles and academic efficacy beliefs may or may not vary across life stages. The sample included 1431 school students and 1119 university students cross the Sultanate of Oman. The participants responded to the Arabic version of the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and to the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES) constructed by the researchers. Using linear regression model for each sample, the results showed that the amount of variance in school students’ academic self-efficacy beliefs explained by parenting styles (R2 adjusted = 0.21) was higher than the amount of variance explained for the university sample (R2 adjusted = 0.10). The researchers concluded that the effects of parenting styles on students’ self-efficacy beliefs decrease as children grow up.

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