Development and Validation of the Autonomy Support Situational Judgment Test for Preschool Teachers
Autonomy support is crucial to the development of children’s autonomy and intrinsic motivation. Existing evaluation methods face three-fold contradictions: convenience versus authenticity, objectivity versus generalizability, and depth of interpretation versus dynamic correlation. To address this, this study developed a set of situational judgment tests for preschool teacher autonomy support. Firstly, three dimensions of high control, slight control and high autonomy are established as the measurement structure. Then, the real teaching situations were collected through the event sampling observation method, and seven typical situational events were selected by Delphi method, and 21 behavioral response items were designed. After testing 300 preschool teachers, the results showed that the total Cronbach α coefficient of the test was 0.87. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model fitted well, and the content validity was verified by expert review and theoretical framework. The research shows that the tool has good reliability and validity, can scientifically evaluate the level of preschool teacher autonomy support, and provide practical basis for teachers’ training and self-diagnosis.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Jianye Fu, Jin Fang
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Article Information
- Article Type Research Articles
- Submitted September 24, 2026
- Accepted October 26, 2026
- Published October 30, 2026
- Issue Vol. 5 No. 2 (2026): Pedagogical Perspective (December)
- Section Research Articles
