Validation of the scale of implicit theories of reading comprehension (ETICOLEC) of in-service teachers

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to report the design and validation of the Scale of Implicit Theories of Reading Comprehension (ETICOLEC per its Spanish acronym) with a sample of 653 Mexican middle-school teachers. In an exploratory, hypothesis-generating manner, we also examine associations between implicit theories (ITs), type of school and subject matter area. The scale consists of five subscales: receptive IT, interpretive IT, constructive-rhetorical IT, constructive-critical IT, and constructive-applicative IT. Factorial and reliability analyses yielded good psychometric properties for all the subscales. Chi-square tests did not show differences in ITs per demographic variables. However, ANOVA results suggested a higher presence of the receptive IT in private school teachers and a lower presence of the receptive IT and the constructive-rhetorical IT in earth science teachers vs. language and social science teachers. Future research should examine these potential connections between ITs and subject matters with representative samples. The ETICOLEC can be used to describe the ITs of large teacher groups in combination with other instruments.