Psychometric Evaluation of Teacher Educators’ Ethical Conduct Self-Assessment Test Scale for Adoption in Northwest Nigerian Colleges of Education

Ethical practices are essential in teacher education, just as education is crucial for a nation. Historically, teachers have been viewed as role models in society. This paper aims to enhance understanding of the ethical behavior of teacher educators in Nigerian Colleges of Education through a self-assessment test. The items for this test were created by the researchers and validated by six experts, achieving good content validity indices (I-CVI) and scale CVI (S-CVI) scores (0.80 – 0.96) using both universal agreement (S-CVI/UA) and average CVI (S-CVI/Ave) methods. The researchers conducted a pilot test with 25 items administered to 37 teacher educators at the College of Education in Sokoto, Nigeria. The psychometric properties of the ethical scale were then analyzed using the Rasch Model with Winsteps version 3.72.3, focusing on reliability, polarity, unidimensionality, and item difficulty. The results showed a Cronbach Alpha (α) reliability (KR-20) of 0.87, person reliability of 0.81, and a separation index of 2.07. Item reliability was 0.80 with a separation index of 2.03. While many items showed strong validity and reliability, some did not fit well, indicating a need for refinement or removal before broader implementation. Specifically, items that did not meet the acceptable criteria for fit and reliability were identified for modification, and some were discarded.