Teachers’ Readiness to Implement STEM Education: Psychometric Properties of TRi-STEM Scale and Measurement Invariance across Individual Characteristics of Greek In-Service Teachers

Abstract

The integration of STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics—education in the curricula has become a priority in contemporary education, where teachers have a decisive role. Thus, research has focused on teachers’ readiness for STEM education, where the prerequisite is to ensure valid measurements. In this study, we present the psychometric properties of the TRi-STEM scale, validated to measure teachers’ readiness in implementing STEM education. The proposed scale was based on questionnaires that appeared in the literature, and the final form was adopted and refined for Greek in-service teachers (N = 494), via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. TRi-STEM comprises four dimensions: affective conditions (AC), cognitive conditions (CC), self-efficacy (SE), and STEM commitment (SC). The reliability measures of the four factors were AC (α = 0.972/ω = 0.972), CC (α = 0.976/ω = 0.976), SE (α = 0.934/ω = 0.935), and SC (α = 0.886/ω = 0.885), and confirmatory factor analysis showed a satisfactory fit [χ2(249) = 981.287, p < 0.001, TLI = 0.942, CFI = 0.948, GFI = 0.993, NNFI = 0.942, RMSEA = 0.078 (0.073–0.083), and SRMR = 0.062]. In addition, measurement invariance was carried out for gender, age, years of service, school level, and university degrees. The TRi-STEM scale is an essential and applicable tool to ensure validity in educational research and support further hypotheses testing.

Burnout of Greek Teachers: Measurement Invariance and Differences across Individual Characteristics

“…If the intercepts are not invariant, a bias effect may occur, indicating essential differences across groups regarding the essence of the construct under investigation. Neglecting measurement invariance in instrument development might have severe implications for the conclusions and the generalization of the findings [ 46 ]; thus, in psychometric research, there is a growing interest in assessing it (e.g., [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. Measurement invariance is a four-step procedure.…”

Attitudes towards STEM education: nonlinear effects of teachers’ readiness and the crucial role of affective conditions

“…There are a number of latent constructs, such as cognitive and affective conditions, that, as descendant variables, could influence and shape attitudes. These, along with self-efficacy and commitment, are teachers' readiness dimensions (Abdullah et al, 2017;Papagiannopoulou et al, 2023). These independent variables are linearly related to attitudes, and high self-efficacy, cognitive preparedness, and commitment most likely determine highly positive attitudes.…”

“…The TRi-STEM scale was used to measure teachers' readiness to implement Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The already validated questionnaire (Papagiannopoulou et al, 2023)…”

“…Obviously, the teachers' sufficient preparation is a promising factor, and because of its multifaceted character, scholars in this field introduced the notion of readiness that has been proven valuable and adept in carrying out research and exploring the processes in question (Abdullah et al, 2017;Papagiannopoulou et al, 2023).…”

“…In the STEM teaching and learning process, readiness is a crucial, multivariate construct, decedent to the formative attitudes that ultimately determine behavior. From a psychometric point of view, it comprises four dimensions: affective conditions (Affe), cognitive preparedness (Cogn), self-efficacy (SEff), and STEM commitment (Com), measured via the TRi-STEM scale (Papagiannopoulou et al, 2023). Teacher readiness of cognitive aspects, or cognitive readiness, is defined as an organized process along with its resultant state that involves issues related to a number of skills and mental capabilities, such as adaptability, situational awareness, metacognitive strategies, critical thinking, decision-making, problem-solving skills, creativity, resilience, and interpersonal skills (O'Neil et al, 2014).…”