CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF AN ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT SCALE FOR UNIVERSITY LECTURERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

The quality of teaching remains one of the most influential factors affecting students’ academic achievement and the overall effectiveness of higher education. University lecturers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the teaching profession play a significant role in shaping their professional commitment, instructional practices, teaching effectiveness, and willingness to support students’ learning outcomes. Despite the importance of these factors, the availability of reliable and valid instruments for systematically assessing university lecturers’ attitudes towards the teaching profession remains essential. This study focuses on the development and validation of a psychometrically sound attitude scale for assessing university lecturers’ perceptions of the teaching profession in Southwest Nigeria. The study seeks to establish an appropriate measurement framework for examining lecturers’ professional values, perceptions of teaching, commitment to instructional responsibilities, and attitudes towards the status and relevance of the teaching profession. The instrument development process involves identifying relevant dimensions of lecturers’ professional attitudes, generating appropriate measurement items, obtaining expert assessments, and conducting empirical evaluations to establish the instrument’s reliability and validity. Particular attention is given to content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, and the suitability of the scale for measuring the intended constructs. The development of this instrument is expected to provide researchers, educational administrators, and policymakers with a dependable tool for understanding lecturers’ professional attitudes and identifying factors that may influence teaching quality in Nigerian universities. The study also seeks to contribute to educational measurement and evaluation by providing a contextually relevant instrument that can support future investigations into lecturers’ professional perceptions and teaching effectiveness.