Validating a scale for measuring teachers’ expectations about generic competences in higher education: The Ecuadorian case

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess the expectations of university teachers about the importance of generic competences in Higher Education Institutions of Ecuador (E-DUC, acronym in Spanish), based on the competences typology from the Tuning Latin America Project.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire with Likert scales was administered to 458 university teachers from seven universities in Ecuador. Exploratory and confirmatory analyzes have been carried out to validate the theoretical model.

Findings

After the validation process, four groups of generic competences were confirmed and the measurement model showed high levels of reliability, as well as content and construct validity.

Research limitations/implications

Since tuning project has an international scope, the research could be replicated in other Latin American countries for comparability purposes regarding teachers’ perceived importance of generic competences in teaching activity. In addition, further research can relate teachers’ expectations with teaching performance and other constructs, based on a broad theoretical framework.

Practical implications

These technical characteristics allow the use of E-DUC as an instrument to measure the expectations of teachers on the general competences that are worked on in higher education in Ecuador. Data about these perceptions are useful for the design of teachers’ training programs, curriculum reforms and other higher education policies.

Originality/value

It is the first research carried out in Ecuador and Latin America in order to validate a scale for measuring the expectations of teachers about the importance of the generic competences proposed in the Tuning Latin America Project.

Citation

Serrano, R., Macias, W., Rodriguez, K. and Amor, M.I. (2019), "Validating a scale for measuring teachers’ expectations about generic competences in higher education: The Ecuadorian case", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 439-451. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-09-2018-0192