Components of Chinese Language Teacher’s Functional Competencies: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Abstract

This quantitative study was aimed at factor analysis of Chinese language teacher’s functional competencies in Thai schools of Basic Education. The samples were collected with stratified random sampling technique, totaling 500 Chinese language teachers in schools of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education in Thailand. The research instrument was the questionnaire with its reliability value of 0.96. The statistical analysis consisted of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), means (M), and standard deviation (S.D.). The data for analysis were the seven components of Chinese language teacher’s functional competencies including: 1) Chinese Curriculum and Curriculum Development; 2) Creation of a Conducive Classroom Environment; 3) Psychology of Learning; 4) Development of Teacher Professionalism; 5) Communication Skills and Knowledge; 6) Understanding of Multiculturalism; and 7) ICT for Instructional Media Production. The findings presented that the components of Chinese language teacher’s functional competencies correspond significantly with empirical data by a CFA (χ2-test=0.81, χ2 /df= 0.12, RMR=0.00, GFI=1.00, AGFI=0.99, RMSEA=0.00).