Teaching Styles for Sustainability Education (TSSE): Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Teachers play a vital role in promoting societal change and guiding students toward a sustainable future. This research aims to develop and validate a scale, namely ‘Teaching Styles for Sustainability Education (TSSE)’ to assess teaching styles in sustainability education in Pakistan. The scale was developed and tested with students from nine public sector institutions in Pakistan. In the initial stage, 40 statements were generated through an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews. The face and construct validity of the scale were assessed to ensure its accuracy. A principal components analysis with varimax rotation confirmed a four-factor model representing different dimensions of teaching styles. After validation, the scale items were reduced to 26, covering four TSSE, that is, active learning, collaborative learning, experiential learning and problem-based learning. The TSSE scale has strong psychometric properties, with α = 0.95 indicating a high level of internal consistency, demonstrating that the items are dependable. The TSSE scale provides researchers with a thorough method to assess faculty TSSE and is designed to examine how ESD may be integrated within higher education institutions.