Measuring teachers’ beliefs in their capacity to use differentiated instruction in their classrooms: development, validation and confirmation of a self-efficacy scale

The purpose of this study was to develop, validate and confirm a scale to gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs in their capacity to use differentiated instruction in their classrooms. Differentiation is an effective approach to teaching, designed to enable equitable learning opportunities for every student. Teachers are recommended to differentiate aspects of teaching, instruction, learning, assessment and the learning environment due to the increasing student heterogeneity within classrooms worldwide. Emerging literature has suggested that teacher self-efficacy may influence how teachers use this teaching approach. It is unknown if there is an existing scale that measures teachers’ self-efficacy when adapting a specific model (Tomlinson) of differentiation. This model utilises several key elements and guiding principles to ensure that all students are maximising their learning. By means of exploratory (N = 380) and confirmatory (N = 314) factor analyses totalling 27 items, results provided support for the development of, validity of scores on, and confirmation of the Teachers’ Self-efficacy Scale Using Differentiated Instruction. Future educators, researchers, and practitioners can use the scale to gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs in using differentiated instruction as a teaching pedagogy in their classrooms.