Why Don’t Teachers Understand Our Questions? Reconceptualizing Teachers’ “Misinterpretation” of Survey Items

Abstract

This study examined sources of inconsistency between teachers’ and researchers’ interpretations of survey items. We analyzed cognitive interview data from 12 middle school mathematics teachers to understand their interpretations of survey items focused on one aspect of their practice: the content of their advice-seeking interactions. Through this analysis we found that previously documented conceptualizations of sources of misinterpretation within teacher surveys (e.g., structural complexity, use of reform language) did not adequately account for all of the inconsistencies between the survey items and teachers’ interpretations. We found it useful to reconceptualize the broader source of many of the misinterpretations as an issue of fit between the researchers’ intended interpretation and teachers’ professional practice.