Development and psychometric validation of the TC-CIS Scale for measuring self-perceived teaching competencies in the instruction of controversial issues

This study presents the development and psychometric validation of the Teaching Competencies in Controversial Issues Instruction Scale (TC-CIS), designed to measure perceived self­efficacy and institutional support in the didactic treatment of controversial issues. A cross-sectional instrumental design was applied to a sample of 684 Spanish social and experimental sciences teachers. Following an item development process based on a literature review and expert judgment (BW 0.95; AC2 0.95), the 10­item scale underwent Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The resulting bifactorial model demonstrated an excellent fit (df = 1.15; CFI = 0.998; TLI = 0.997; RMSEA = 0.015; SRMR = 0.018), with factor loadings ranging from 0.79 to 0.87 and a low correlation between factors (r = 0.02). Internal reliability was high (total = .86; = .86; FC = .96), and convergent validity was satisfactory (AVE .67). Moreover, configural, metric, scalar, and strict invariance were confirmed across gender, age, origin, educational stage, and

prior training (CFI 0.01). However, predictive validity analysis indicated a limited discriminatory capacity regarding teachers' formative intention (AUC = 0.572). It can be concluded that the Teaching Competencies in Controversial Issues Instruction Scale (TC­CIS) provides a brief, robust, and culturally stable measure of teaching competencies for addressing sensitive or controversial issues in Social and Experimental Sciences classrooms, although its predictive power needs further specification and its applicability in international contexts should be explored. [Publisher's Text]