Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Education
Although there are an increasing number of studies on assessing teacher emotions in mainstream education, there is a lack of appropriate measurement tools to evaluate the emotions of teaching assistants (TAs) who need to take care of students with a range of special educational needs (SEN). This stu...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.813726/full |
| _version_ | 1811224399821406208 |
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| author | Lan Yang Chia-Ling Hsu Tianfang Ye Kuen Fung Sin |
| author_facet | Lan Yang Chia-Ling Hsu Tianfang Ye Kuen Fung Sin |
| author_sort | Lan Yang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although there are an increasing number of studies on assessing teacher emotions in mainstream education, there is a lack of appropriate measurement tools to evaluate the emotions of teaching assistants (TAs) who need to take care of students with a range of special educational needs (SEN). This study tested the generalizability of the 24-item teacher emotion inventory (TEI), among 204 TAs from 122 secondary schools with inclusive education in Hong Kong. We conducted both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch analysis to test the within-network validity of the TEI. For the between-network validity, we examined the relationships between TAs’ emotions and their attitude toward inclusive education. The Rasch analysis supported the scale’s dimensionality and item fit statistics. The CFA supported the five-factor solution of the TEI. The results also showed statistically significant correlations between positive emotions (joy and love) and TAs’ attitudes toward inclusive education. TAs’ negative emotions (anxiety, anger, and stress) appeared to be negatively correlated with their attitude toward inclusive education. The results supported that TEI is a useful tool to assess the emotions of TAs that play a pivotal role in assisting both school teachers and SEN students, who are more likely to face increased emotional challenges than those not needing to educate SEN students. Implications of this study to enrich the current scope of research on understanding teacher emotions across educational levels and settings are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:48:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c43e4bdb98734a1b8d2848ad43ada356 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:48:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-c43e4bdb98734a1b8d2848ad43ada3562022-12-22T03:39:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-07-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.813726813726Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive EducationLan Yang0Chia-Ling Hsu1Tianfang Ye2Kuen Fung Sin3Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaHong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Wan Chai, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaDepartment of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaDepartment of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaAlthough there are an increasing number of studies on assessing teacher emotions in mainstream education, there is a lack of appropriate measurement tools to evaluate the emotions of teaching assistants (TAs) who need to take care of students with a range of special educational needs (SEN). This study tested the generalizability of the 24-item teacher emotion inventory (TEI), among 204 TAs from 122 secondary schools with inclusive education in Hong Kong. We conducted both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch analysis to test the within-network validity of the TEI. For the between-network validity, we examined the relationships between TAs’ emotions and their attitude toward inclusive education. The Rasch analysis supported the scale’s dimensionality and item fit statistics. The CFA supported the five-factor solution of the TEI. The results also showed statistically significant correlations between positive emotions (joy and love) and TAs’ attitudes toward inclusive education. TAs’ negative emotions (anxiety, anger, and stress) appeared to be negatively correlated with their attitude toward inclusive education. The results supported that TEI is a useful tool to assess the emotions of TAs that play a pivotal role in assisting both school teachers and SEN students, who are more likely to face increased emotional challenges than those not needing to educate SEN students. Implications of this study to enrich the current scope of research on understanding teacher emotions across educational levels and settings are discussed.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.813726/fullteaching assistants (TAs)inclusive educationteacher emotion inventory (TEI)teacher emotionsvalidationthe TAs’ emotion model |
| spellingShingle | Lan Yang Chia-Ling Hsu Tianfang Ye Kuen Fung Sin Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Education Frontiers in Psychology teaching assistants (TAs) inclusive education teacher emotion inventory (TEI) teacher emotions validation the TAs’ emotion model |
| title | Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Education |
| title_full | Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Education |
| title_fullStr | Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Education |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Education |
| title_short | Assessing Emotions of Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Education |
| title_sort | assessing emotions of teaching assistants in inclusive education |
| topic | teaching assistants (TAs) inclusive education teacher emotion inventory (TEI) teacher emotions validation the TAs’ emotion model |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.813726/full |
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