Teaching and Learning Innovation among Teacher Educators

Abstract

Innovation is an important competency to be honed by all the school teachers. To promote innovation among school teachers, teacher educators in Teacher Training Colleges play a prominent role. Align with this, approaches of integrating innovation in teaching and learning activities are found to be very significant in enhancing the quality of teacher education. In spite of the significance of this construct, valid instruments have proven yet to be developed in the context of teacher education. Therefore, the absence of valid instrument to assess innovation in teaching and learning activities among teacher educators has stymied researches in this area. The main aim of this study was to develop a valid instrument to assess innovation in teaching and learning activities among teacher educators. A survey comprised of 100 teacher educators was carried out in one of the Teacher Training Colleges in Malaysia. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to identify the underlying factors. Result of EFA formed a nine-item version of Innovation in Teaching and Learning Activities Inventory (ITLAI). All the combined nine items explained 65.809% of the total cumulative variance. Based on these findings, ITLAI can be used as a valid instrument to assess innovation in teaching and learning activities among teacher educators in Teacher Training Colleges. Besides, it provides comprehensive guidelines for head of departments to organize a clinical workshop on teaching and learning innovation for novice teacher educators.