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With respect to the face
validity of the TSI, Fimian (1982) first summarized the available
literature during the fall of 1979 and found 135 sources and
manifestations of teacher stress. These stressors were then categorized
into 1 of 13 a priori factors: (a) Personal Competence, (b)
Self-Relationship, (c) Conflicting Values, (d) Social Approval, (e)
Isolation, (f) Expectations, (g) Self-Fulfillment, (h) Environmental,
(i)
Unmet Professional Needs, (j) Self-Inflicted Stress, (k) Professional
Constraints, (1) Student-Teacher Relationships, and (m) Miscellaneous
Demands of Teaching. Redundant and conceptually similar items were
combined or deleted from the item pool, resulting in a list of 79 items.
Each item was then placed on an index card. These were
distributed, individually or in small groups, to 2 faculty members and
14 graduate students from the University of Connecticut College of
Education and to 16 teachers from local school districts. Respondents
were asked to sort the cards into two piles: one for items most related
to teacher stress and the other for items less related to stress.
Related items were logged on a master list, and a check mark was
recorded each time an item was selected as relevant. The teachers also
provided informal written feedback about the appropriateness of item
inclusion in the next version of the TSI. Judgmental screening and
editing of the appraisal samples' selections from the list of 79 items
resulted in a rank order of items based on the frequency of selection.
The final list of 63 usable items represented 80% of the initial 79
items and was used to develop the TSI pilot form called the Teacher
Stress Scale. |
