| One of the challenges associated with education becoming an evidence-based practice is teachers' attitude toward education research. Little is known about why teachers may not look to research to solve instructional problems, but it is likely linked to teachers' attitudes toward education research. The purpose of this dissertation was to update and validate a scale to measure teachers' attitudes toward education research. The updated scale was administered to a group of classroom teachers in a large suburban school district (n=474). An exploratory factor analysis found three factors, accounting for 51.5% of the total variance in the final scale. The factors underlying teachers' attitudes toward education research are personal interest in conducting education research, value of education research, and usefulness of research skills to teachers. Significant differences in the attitude scores were found when examined for teachers' educational background, types and quality of professional development the teachers have experienced, their exposure to and use of teacher research, and the sources of education research findings that teachers can use in the classroom. |
