MEASURING CHINESE RURAL SCIENCE TEACHERS’ SELF-PERCEPTION TOWARDS TEACHING COMPETENCIES: INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT

The teaching competency of rural teachers is fundamental to providing rural pupils with a high-quality education. Nonetheless, China has not yet established standardized competence criteria for rural science teachers, making it difficult to ascertain the actual competence of the rural teaching force on the front lines. Consequently, this study aimed at accessing Chinese rural science teachers’ teaching competency and exploring rural-urban differences by developing a measurement instrument. Factor analyses confirmed the reliability and validity of this instrument, which consisted of 21 items and four dimensions. In addition, the questionnaire was employed to examine 393 science teachers in China, discovering the significant rural-urban differences in terms of teaching implementation and learning evaluation together with teacher distribution. This study was hoped to promote the building of the teaching competency system and provide references for rural science teachers’ professional development. Keywords: rural teacher, teaching competency, science teacher, factor analysis