Teacher Self-Efficacy for Teaching Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Associations with Stress, Teacher Engagement, and Student IEP Outcomes Following COMPASS Consultation.
Six quick questions can spot teachers who feel unprepared to teach students with autism and are heading for high stress.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a six-question survey called ASSET. It asks teachers how sure they feel about teaching kids with autism.
They gave the survey to the teachers after each teacher finished a COMPASS coaching plan. Then they checked if higher scores linked to lower stress.
What they found
The six items hung together as one clear factor. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.88, which means the questions agree with each other.
Teachers who scored high on ASSET also scored low on every stress sub-scale. The links were medium-strong and in the expected direction.
How this fits with other research
Grodberg et al. (2012) and Mandell et al. (2016) built the 8-item AMSE for spotting autism signs. Like ASSET, both tools are ultra-short and show good numbers. first time out.
Paff et al. (2019) created the EBP-COM, an observer checklist for teacher practices. ASSET is the mirror image: it asks teachers to rate themselves instead of being watched.
Ben-Yehudah et al. (2019) found that parents who are kind to themselves feel less stress. ASSET shows the same story for teachers: higher self-belief equals lower stress.
Green et al. (2020) validated a French stress scale for parents. Together these papers give you matched tools for both sides of the home-school team.
Why it matters
You can add the six ASSET questions to your intake packet. A low score flags a teacher who may need extra coaching before burnout hits. Quick, free, and backed by data.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate a new measure, the Autism Self-Efficacy Scale for Teachers (ASSET) for its dimensionality, internal consistency, and construct validity derived in a sample of special education teachers (N = 44) of students with autism. Results indicate that all items reflect one dominant factor, teachers' responses to items were internally consistent within the sample, and compared to a 100-point scale, a 6-point response scale is adequate. ASSET scores were found to be negatively correlated with scores on two subscale measures of teacher stress (i.e., self-doubt/need for support and disruption of the teaching process) but uncorrelated with teacher burnout scores. The ASSET is a promising tool that requires replication with larger samples.
Focus on autism and other developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2013.06.006