Advancing Sustainable Islamic Teacher Education: Developing a Zero-Waste Competency Instrument for Preservice Madrasah Teachers
Abstract
The integration of sustainability into Islamic teacher education requires appropriate instruments to assess preservice teachers’ competencies in promoting environmentally responsible practices. However, existing instruments mostly focus on general environmental attitudes or self-reported ecological behavior and rarely assess knowledge, self-efficacy, and zero-waste behavior together. This study aimed to develop and establish the content validity of a Zero-Waste Competency Instrument for preservice madrasah teachers. The instrument was developed through several systematic steps, including construct identification, blueprint development, Table of Specification (TOS) preparation, item writing, expert judgment, instrument revision, and pilot testing. The final instrument consisted of 52 items: 18 objective multiple-choice items measuring Zero-Waste Knowledge, 10 Personal Self-Efficacy statements, 12 Instructional Self-Efficacy statements, and 12 Zero-Waste Behavior statements. Content validity was assessed by four experts from the fields of environmental education, educational assessment, teacher education, and psychometrics using the Content Validity Index (CVI) approach following Lynn (1986) and the recommendations of Polit and Beck (2006) and Polit et al. (2007). The Item-Level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) was used to quantify item-level expert agreement, while the Scale-Level Content Validity Index based on the average approach (S-CVI/Ave) was used to summarize content validity across the instrument. All 52 items obtained an I-CVI of 1.00, and the overall S-CVI/Ave was also 1.00, indicating excellent content validity. Based on the experts’ recommendations, eight items were refined, while no item required major revision or rejection. The revised instrument was then pilot-tested with 30 preservice madrasah teachers to examine its readability, clarity, and practicality. Overall, the instrument provides a content-validated framework for assessing zero-waste competencies among preservice madrasah teachers and a basis for further psychometric validation. It can support sustainability-oriented Islamic teacher education and provide a basis for further research on environmental education and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
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