Teachers' Readiness to Implement Robotics in Education: Validation and Measurement Invariance of TRi-Robotics Scale via Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Network Psychometrics.

Abstract

The incorporation of educational robotics (ER) into classroom learning has emerged as a significant goal in contemporary education, with instructors assuming a pivotal role. Recent research has shown the influence of teachers' perceptions of ER and their self-efficacy on the learning process, while the primary goal in these inquiries is to the development of appropriate scales that guarantee correct measurements. Serving this goal, the present study presents the TRi-Robotics scale and its psychometric properties, which assesses teachers' readiness to integrate ER into their classrooms. TRi-Robotics is a novel multidimensional tool that integrates self-efficacy, commitment, and affective conditions, validated through both CFA and network psychometrics. The proposed 14-item scale is three-dimensional and includes self-efficacy (SE), commitment (C), and affective conditions (AC). The validation procedure included the customary Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, applied to a sample of 817 in-service teachers. Reliability analysis showed satisfactory internal consistency, while measurement invariance for gender was sustained. Furthermore, network psychometrics was applied via Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA), which supported the proposed structure and its dimensionality and measurement invariance. The TRi-Robotics scale proved a valid instrument with satisfactory psychometric properties, and it is a significant asset to implement in educational and psychological research for testing further research hypotheses.