Measuring Chinese inclusive teachers’ beliefs about teaching students with disabilities: scale development and validation

Existing measurements of inclusive teachers’ beliefs have encountered challenges related to reliability and validity when applied in different contexts. This study aimed to develop and validate the Inclusive Teachers’ Beliefs Scale (ITBS) to investigate teaching belief constructs and their influence on teacher efficacy in Chinese elementary classrooms. A total of 725 teachers participated in the completion of the ITBS and the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices scale. The analyses extracted and verified the three-factor structure of the ITBS (i.e. beliefs about inclusive instruction, students with disabilities, and teachers themselves) and demonstrated satisfactory reliability. Moreover, beliefs about students with disabilities significantly predict teacher efficacy factors, mediated by beliefs about inclusive instruction.