Validation of the democratic teacher belief scale (dtbs)

Democratic beliefs in education are important in a pluralistic society, where teachers must be prepared to make professional decisions about how best to meet the educational needs of all students. The purpose of this study was to validate the Democratic Teacher Belief Scale (DTBS). The scale is composed of 34 items relating to the three central principles in democracy–equality, freedom, and justice–as they are manifested in classroom life. Results indicated high internal consistency, significant contrasted group validity, and significant criterion validity (correlation with the Classroom Coping Strategies Scale and with principal evaluation of teaching success). These results have important implications for the measurement of teacher beliefs, as well as for practice in teacher training.