Teaching Students With Disabilities Efficacy Scale: Development and Validation

Promoting access to inclusive environments for students with disabilities is a critical issue facing schools. Feeling efficacious in teaching students with disabilities is a key aspect of enabling teachers to promote inclusion. This article reports on the development of a scale of teacher self-efficacy for teaching students with disabilities. It was examined with in-service (N = 288) and preservice (N = 143) teachers, and the results suggest it is a reliable and valid tool. The final version includes five subscales that define efficacy for teaching students with disabilities, all with strong statistical reliability and compelling conceptual meaning. They are: Instruction, Teacher Professionalism, Teacher Support, Classroom or Behavior Management, and Related Duties. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.