Teacher Engagement Report Form–New [TERF-10]

Description

The Teacher Engagement Report Form–New (TERF-N/TERF-10) is an observational assessment tool designed to evaluate student engagement from the teacher’s perspective. It consists of 10 closed-ended items and captures observable indicators of students’ participation and involvement in the school environment.

The instrument addresses aspects of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement and is intended to complement the self-report Student Engagement in Schools Questionnaire (SESQ). In this way, it provides an external teacher-based perspective alongside students’ own reports.

Purpose

The main purpose of the TERF-10 is to provide a structured assessment of the extent to which students participate actively, persist in school-related activities, and remain engaged in the academic and social life of the school.

The instrument may help identify students with lower levels of engagement and can support the planning of targeted educational interventions at both the individual and school level. It also strengthens multi-informant assessment by combining information from students and teachers.

Scoring

The 10 items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale, where:

• 1 = Strongly disagree
• 5 = Strongly agree

A total score can be calculated either by summing the item scores or by computing their mean. Higher scores indicate higher levels of teacher-perceived student engagement.

The items cover observable aspects such as class participation, persistence with difficult tasks, self-motivation, peer relationships, and school attendance or presence.

Validity

Factor-analytic investigation indicated that, although a three-factor structure was initially considered, the TERF-N items converged on a single factor representing General Engagement.

This structure was supported using criteria such as the Kaiser criterion and Cattell’s scree plot. In addition, positive associations with the emotional and behavioral engagement dimensions of the SESQ provided evidence of convergent validity.

Reliability

Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, which reached 0.83. This value exceeds the commonly accepted threshold of 0.70 and indicates satisfactory to strong reliability.

The result suggests that the items consistently assess a common underlying construct of student engagement.

Data Analysis and Use

Data analysis included Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using oblique Geomin rotation and Maximum Likelihood estimation. The findings supported a strong General Engagement factor accounting for 52.88% of the total variance.

Correlations between the TERF-N and SESQ were also examined in order to assess external validity.

Applications

The TERF-10 may be used in educational psychology, school psychology, counseling, student-engagement research, and school disengagement prevention programs.

Its findings may support the identification of students with low participation, the monitoring of educational interventions, and research examining relationships between student engagement and academic or psychosocial outcomes.

References

Hart, S. R., Stewart, K., & Jimerson, S. R. (2011). The Student Engagement in Schools Questionnaire (SESQ) and the Teacher Engagement Report Form–New (TERF-N): Examining the preliminary evidence. Contemporary School Psychology, 15, 67–78.

Lam, S. F., & Jimerson, S. R. (2008). Exploring Student Engagement in Schools Internationally: Consultation Paper. International School Psychologist Association.