Improving Measurement of Ambiguity-Tolerance Among Teacher Candidates

The process of learning often requires dealing with the ambiguity of uncertain interpretations. A learner’s tolerance for ambiguity involves the degree of willingness to accept or adapt to unfamiliar, unpredictable, or uncertain situations and ideas. This study examined the measurement of ambiguity tolerance (AT) among teacher candidates. Pre-service teachers (n = 114) attending a medium size university in the southeastern United States were administered McLain's (1993) Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance (MSTAT-I) scale. Analyses were first conducted on item responses from the MSTAT-I, then on item responses from the MSTAT-II (McLain, 2009), an instrument comprised of a subset of 13 particular items from the original 22-item instrument. Rasch-model measures and diagnostic analyses were compared and illustrated graphically for the two versions of the AT instrument and then for two shorter versions. Findings indicated validity support for the MSTAT-II instrument, measurement improvement to reducing the number of Likert scale categories to 5, and further measurement benefits of an alternative 9-item AT instrument. The distribution of measured AT among participants was discussed with regard to individual differences among teacher candidates and the potential application of AT measurement as an intellectual disposition among educators.

http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2016/2016/25/