Large-scale educational effectiveness research requires valid student
questionnaires to assess teaching practices. This research validated eight
scales for measuring teaching factors from the Dynamic Model of Educational
Effectiveness (DMEE). Parallel versions of scales for measuring teaching
factors in mathematics and biology were constructed and validated in two
studies. In the first study, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on
data from 683 students. In the second study, the structure was
cross-validated via a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on a sample of
5,476 students. The multi-group CFA resulted in an acceptable metric
invarience for all scales, indicating that the scales have comparable factor
loadings. However, unsatisfactory scalar invariance suggested that the
scales could not be used to compare teachers of different subjects. Testing
alternative structural relations between the teaching factors did not
confirm that the data fit the DMEE model adequately, although the fit
parameters were better than for the alternative theoretical models. For
mathematics, the external validation of the scales showed that the scales
correlated with job satisfaction, external control, and teacher
self-efficacy reported by the teachers. The scales are reliable and valid
and could be applied to different school subjects.