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European Journal of Special Education Research ISSN: 2501 - 2428 ISSN-L: 2501 - 2428 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1065014 Volume 2 │ Issue 6 │ 2017 CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE SCALE MEASURING TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION (TAIS) Timo Saloviitai Asko Tolvanen University of Jyvaskyla, Finland Abstract: All published scales constructed to measure teacher attitudes towards inclusion have been shown to contain several factors. This study explored the factor structure of the Teacher Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (TAIS) in a population of Finnish basic school teachers (n = 1,764) using confirmatory factor analysis. The TAIS scale was shown to be one-dimensional in this population. However, the result does not automatically generalize to other countries where the school system differs from that of Finland. Keywords: inclusive education, Finland, measurement of attitudes, teachers 1. Introduction Inclusive education refers to a situation in which students with special educational needs (SEN) are educated in the same classrooms as their non-disabled peers instead of separate special schools or special education classrooms (UNESCO, 1994). An important precondition for successful inclusion is the positive attitude of teachers towards such placements (UNESCO, 2009). Accordingly, teacher attitudes have been an object of extensive study. Several scales have also been developed to measure teacher attitudes towards inclusive education (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002; de Boer, Pijl, & Minnaert, 2011). At least 11 attitude scales have been published, which have been used more often than in a single study and for which sufficient psychometric data is available (Saloviita, 2015). The number of items in these scales has varied between 12 and 30, and their Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 196 Timo Saloviita, Asko Tolvanen CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE SCALE MEASURING TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION (TAIS) reliabilities, as measured by Cronbach s alpha, have shown good or excellent levels. However, their factor structure has been scattered, having 3–5 factors (Saloviita, 2015). The multifactorial structure of the attitude scales measuring teachers views on inclusion may reflect problems relating to scale construction rather than the multifactorial nature of the construct itself. A unidimensional scale may be, for several reasons, worth pursuing. At least one such scale has been documented, the Teacher Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (TAIS) (Saloviita, 2015). Despite its unidimensionality, the items of the scale encompass a wide array of contents, such as inclusion as a value, expected outcomes, rights of the child, and workload of the teacher, thus adding to the construct validity of the instrument. The scale consists of ten items measured by a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree with a neutral mid-point. To calculate the sum total, the scoring of six items is reversed (Table 1). The reliability of the scale has varied between α = .8 –.90 in various samples (Saloviita, 2015). In exploratory factor analyses, the TAIS scale has been shown to be one-dimensional in four Finnish samples of in-service teachers or final-year preservice teachers (Saloviita, 2015). However, in the population of German teachers, the assessment produced three factors in a principal-axis factor analysis: inclusion as value , outcomes of inclusion and workload concerns Saloviita & Schaffus, 6 . This indicates that the scale is sensitive to the changes in the work environments and conditions of teachers. The claim of the unidimensionality of the TAIS scale is based on exploratory factor analyses. However, a confirmatory factor analysis is needed to validate this claim. Therefore, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed with a sample of Finnish basic school in-service teachers. We also used reliability analysis to investigate whether a short form of the scale would be conceivable. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejse/article/view/1215 European Journal of Special Education Research - Volume 2 │ Issue 6 │ 2017 197