Hungarian adaptation of the teaching environmennt questionnaire and the teacher as social context questionnaire in a Central and Eastern European sample

Abstract

The subject of our study was the adaptation and psychometric analysis of two questionnaires used in English-speaking areas; the Teaching Environment Questionnaire (TE) and the Teacher as Social Context Questionnaire (TASCQ), which can be used to learn about the antecedents of educational strategies. Data were collected with the participation of Hungarian-speaking physical education teachers living in Central and Eastern Europe in Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, and Hungary. With the survey data, we explored the teaching environment as experienced by teachers in public education and the background of the development of motivational strategies named in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, 2000). We examined three areas in the teaching environment: the time constraint of the lesson, the pressure from the school management, and the possibility of professional development in the institution (Taylor et al., 2008). SDT defines three main motivational strategies (autonomy support, structure, and interpersonal involvement) embodied in the behavior of teachers. Between 2018 and 2021, 376 physical education teachers (195 women, 181 men) completed the Teaching Environment Questionnaire (Taylor et al., 2008) and the Teacher as Social Context Questionnaire (TASCQ – Belmont et al., 1988). Based on the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, the factor structure of the original Teaching Environment Questionnaire was modified; two items were removed. Thus, after the modifications, the fit indices were: χ²_TE-H= 95.70, χ²/df_TE-H=2.33; CFI_TE-H=0.96; RMSEA_TE-H =0.06; IFI_TE-H=0.96. The values of internal consistency (Cronbach's α) vary between 0.66 and 0.85, thus meeting the expected criteria. The factors of the Teacher as Social Context Questionnaire were unchanged, but items of the original English version were reduced by eight items in order to reach the required fitting values. Thus, the fit indices improved: χ²_TASCQ-H=44.18;
χ²/df_TASCQ-H=2.59; CFI_TASCQ-H=0.96; RMSEA_TASCQ-H=0.06; IFI_TASQ-H=0.96. In this questionnaire, the internal consistency values vary between 0.66 and 0.73, which also meets the expected criteria. Based on the results of our analysis, it can be concluded that the data obtained by using the questionnaires are suitable for drawing scientific conclusions.