Psychometric Validation of the Robotics Interest Questionnaire (RIQ) Scale with Italian Teachers

In recent years, numerous research studies have highlighted how teachers' perceptions of educational robotics (ER) and their sense of self-efficacy can influence the learning process. Although different instruments exist to investigate teachers' perspectives on ER, the Robotics Interest Questionnaire (RIQ) scale, developed within the Portuguese K-12 education framework to analyse the impact of domain knowledge (i.e. coding and robotics), interest in robotics, and confidence in one's self-efficacy as a robotics teacher, was used in the present work. This instrument has been validated in Portugal, meeting rigorous statistical and reliability measures that our work intends to verify in its Italian version. To test the validity of the instrument, the Teacher Self-Efficacy (QAI) Questionnaire, already validated in Italian and accredited in the literature, was administered jointly. The instruments were administered to a non-probabilistic sample of 823 teachers working in different school orders. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out, confirming a four-factor model. The results suggest the applicability of the RIQ instrument in the Italian school context to test teachers' levels of interest, knowledge, problem-solving, collaborative work, and sense of self-efficacy, successfully discriminating between experienced and inexperienced ER teachers. These constructs, as suggested in multiple works, are relevant factors in promoting the use of robotics for educational purposes.