Developing a Mathematics Instructional Practice Survey: Considerations and Evidence

As mathematics teacher educators, it is imperative that we have high-quality tools that conceptualize and operationalize mathematics instruction for large-scale examination. We first describe existing instructional practice survey scales, including their conceptualization of practice and related validity evidence. We then present the framework and initial validity evidence for our mathematics instructional practice survey. Survey participants were in-service teachers in a statewide mandated mathematics professional development course. Statistical analyses indicate the items measure two constructs: social-constructivist and transmission-based instructional practice. Of particular interest is the result that these two constructs were negligibly correlated. This is in contrast to the generally accepted notion that social-constructivist and transmission-based instructional practices are the two polar ends of a single construct for describing instructional practice.