A Factor Analysis of Primary Teachers Competencies in the Eastern Thailand under The Office of the Basic Education Commission

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1)  to study  primary teacher competencies and, 2) to study the confirmatory factor analysis of primary teacher competencies in eastern Thailand under. The research was a mixed methods research, conducted with 3 steps : 1) documentary analysis 2) 19 experts for in-depth interview on a factor analysis of primary teacher competencies  in eastern Thailand under and the directors  and primary teachers with purposive sampling for a conceptual framework analysis 3) a questionnaire including 3 aspects: academic  knowledge, characteristics, teaching and learning skills. The samples were 397  primary teachers  who taught in eastern Thailand under, acquired by multi-stage sampling. The data were analyzed by mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis and the confirmatory factor analysis. Statistics were analyzed by chi-square statistics, comparative fit index, goodness of fit index, adjusted goodness of fit index, standardized root mean square residual and root mean square error of approximation.

The results revealed that:

1. The results of the 3 aspects towards the study of primary teacher competencies

in eastern Thailand under in general were at a very good level.

1. The result of second-order confirmatory factor analysis program showed that the

resulted model fitted the empirical data. There were three factors in primary teachers competencies in  eastern Thailand under, i.e. academic  knowledge, the characteristics of the person, teaching and learning skills. The construct validity of models was consistent with empirical data, with chi-square X²=20.52, degree of freedom= 13, with relative chi-square X²/df=1.58 which was less than 2, Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) =0.99, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) =0.96, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) =1.00 which was more than 0.90, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR)= 0.011, Root Mean Square Error of  Approximation (RMSEA)= 0.038 which is less than 0.05.