Background/Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare data between direct measures (DM) and indirect measures (IM) of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB) as a model to efficiently measure physical educators' teaching behavior in inclusive physical education.
Method Physical educators (N=125) completed the “Teachers' Beliefs and Intentions Teaching Students with Disabilities” survey. DM consisted of 9 items on attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC). IM consisted of 23 items on behavioral beliefs (BB), normative beliefs (NB), and control beliefs (CB). Correlation, multiple regression, and path analyses were used to assess relationships among factors.
Analysis/Results Correlations between each factor of ATT-BB, SN-NB, and PBC-CB were .66, .46, and .23 (p < .01), respectively. In DM, ATT (.41) had the highest effect on intention followed by CB (.35). Only intention had a direct effect (.41) on behavior accounting for 24% of the variance in behavior. Similarly in IM, BB (.49) had the highest effect on intention followed by NB (.20) and CB (.14). Only intention had a direct effect (.43) on behavior accounting for 23% of the variance in behavior.
Conclusions In conclusion, there is no difference of the estimated behavior between DM and IM, 24% and 23% respectively. Depending on the purpose of the research, it might be sufficient for researchers to use only DM to predict intentions and behavior instead of using both DM and IM. Future research on the TpB should compare the use of DM and IM in other contexts and examine the efficiency of the TpB model.