Factor structure and factorial invariance of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale across Japanese and South Korean college students

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) has been validated in several East Asian countries, but the measurement equivalence of its...     

Assessing statistics attitudes among college students: Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Survey of Attitudes toward Statistics (SATS)

The aim of the present research was to test the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) in order to acquire a valid instrument to measure attitudes inside the Italian educational context. The SATS was administered to Italian-speaking undergraduate students enrolled in introductory statistics courses. A confirmatory factor analysis validated the four-factor structure of the scale, and good indices for both reliability and validity were obtained. A multi-group analysis confirmed the time invariance (beginning vs. end of the course) of the SATS, with a minor exception. Given the invariance across time, latent mean structures analysis revealed small to large significant changes in the four attitude dimensions. The present study provided evidence for the validity and reliability of the SATS when applied to the Italian learning framework.     

Confirmatory factor analysis models of factorial invariance: A multifaceted approach

Typical confirmatory factor analysis studies of factorial invariance test parameter (factor loadings, factor variances/covariances, and uniquenesses) invariance across only two groups (e.g., males and females) or, perhaps, across more than two groups reflecting different levels of a single design facet (e.g., age). The present investigation extends this approach by considering invariance across groups from a two‐facet design. Data consist of multiple dimensions of self‐concept collected from eight groups of students (total N = 4,000) representing a 2 (Gender) × 4 (Age) design. The gender‐stereotypic model posits a particular pattern of gender differences in structure that varies with age. Adopting analysis‐of‐variance terminology, the model posits that structural differences will vary as a function of gender but that this gender effect interacts with age. In testing this model, I consider the lack of invariance in different sets of parameters attributable to gender, age, and their interaction.     

Testing for factorial invariance of the Modified Leadership Scale for Sports: using a Japanese version

The objective of this study was to provide empirical evidence to support psychometric properties of a modified four-dimensional model of the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS). The study tested invariance of all parameters (i.e., factor loadings, error variances, and factor variances–covariances) in the four-dimensional measurement model between two groups of student-athletes. For testing multi-group invariance of the proposed scale, 335 middle school and 320 high school student-athletes in Japan participated in this study. The modified version of the LSS consists of 35 items representing training instruction, democratic behaviour, positive feedback, and social support. A chi-square difference test was employed for model comparisons. The results supported configural, metric, scalar and factor variance–covariance invariance in the modified LSS across the two student-athlete groups.     

Examining factorial validity and measurement invariance of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale

The purposes of this study were to (a) test the hypothesized factor structure of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 2001) for 308 African American (AA) and European American (EA) children using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and (b) examine the measurement invariance of the factor structure across AA and EA children. CFA of the hypothesized three-factor model with correlated latent factors did not yield an optimal model fit. Parameter estimates obtained from CFA identified items with low factor loadings and R² values, suggesting that content revision is required for those items on the STRS. Deletion of two items from the scale yielded a good model fit, suggesting that the remaining 26 items reliably and validly measure the constructs for the whole sample. Tests for configural invariance, however, revealed that the underlying constructs may differ for AA and EA groups. Subsequent exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) for AA and EA children were carried out to investigate the comparability of the measurement model of the STRS across the groups. The results of EFAs provided evidence suggesting differential factor models of the STRS across AA and EA groups. This study provides implications for construct validity research and substantive research using the STRS given that the STRS is extensively used in intervention and research in early childhood education.     

Effect of women science career role models on early adolescents' attitudes toward scientists and women in science

In order to change the attitude of early adolescent female and male students toward scientists and women in science, students in the middle school/junior high grades were exposed over a two months' period to women science career role models as part of their science instruction. This treatment positively affected the students' attitude toward scientists and toward women in science. It is suggested that teachers of science in the middle school/junior high should periodically bring community resource people who use science in their careers to the classroom to act as role models and that women should be included among this group so that the attitudes of both male and female students toward scientists and women in science might be improved.     

Changing attitudes toward science: Undergraduates in 1967 and 1971

The purpose of the study was to examine the change in attitudes toward science and the scientific institution which had occurred among undergraduate university students between 1967 and 1971. Two similar cohorts of university undergraduates were given Form A of the Schwirian Science Support Scale (Tri-S) in 1967 and 1971. The populations were 398 students and 153 students, respectively. Data concerning relevant contingent independent variables were also collected. The data were analyzed utilizing nine, two-way analyses of variance. The major independent variable, time of administration, (1967 and 1971) was always one factor; the second factor in each ANOVA consisted of each of the nine contingent independent variables: (1) age; (2) sex; (3) religious preference; (4) father's education; (5) mother's education; (6) father's occupation; (7) academic major; (8) hometown size; and (9) type of high school. The data from the nine, two-way ANOVA's show significant differences ( p < .05 ) in only two instances. In the case of the association of the Tri-S Scores with father's occupation at times one and two, it was observed that the higher the status of the father's occupation, the higher the student's Tri-S score. This relationship was observed in both 1967 and 1971; there was no significant effect of time. Statistically significant differences in Tri-S scores were also observed among students from different sized hometowns; and in this case, there was a change over time. In 1967 students from small and medium-sized communities had significantly lower Tri-S scores than students from farms and large cities. By 1971 the mean scores of the students from small and medium sized communities had increased, producing scores slightly higher than the farm and city students. The findings indicate that the 1971 Midwestern university students in the sample are no less positive in their attitudes toward science than their 1967 counterparts. No significant differences between overall 1967 and 1971 scores exist and no significant differences over time were observed by age, sex, religious preference, father's or mother's education, father's occupation, academic major, or high school type.     

Teachers' attitudes toward and knowledge of child maltreatment

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine teachers' self-reported knowledge of the signs and symptoms of child maltreatment, reporting procedures, legal issues surrounding child abuse and their attitudes toward corporal punishment. In addition, a factor analysis was performed on the Educators and Child Abuse Questionnaire (ECAQ) (Kenny, 2001a). METHOD: Two hundred teachers, who work in the southeast region of the US in a large, ethnically diverse school system, were administered the ECAQ which contains questions on knowledge concerning: (1) signs and symptoms of child abuse, (2) laws, and (3) procedures for reporting child abuse as well as number of reports filed. RESULTS: Most teachers reported being unaware of the signs and symptoms of child maltreatment, as well as reporting procedures. They also felt administration would not be supportive and were in disagreement with their legal role as mandated reporters. The ECAQ was found to be a reliable measure with four factors: (1) Awareness of signs and symptoms of child abuse, (2) Knowledge of reporting procedures, (3) Attitudes toward discipline, and (4) Seriousness of child abuse. CONCLUSIONS: In general, teachers reported a lack of awareness of the signs of child abuse and reporting procedures, which may affect their ability to report cases of suspected abuse. There is a need for standardized training in child maltreatment for all teachers as well as clear, concise institutional guidelines for reporting child abuse and support for teachers confronted with suspected victims.     

Elementary Pre-Service Teachers' Response-Shift Bias: Self-efficacy and attitudes toward science

Response-shift bias occurs when participants' initial constructs, such as self-efficacy in teaching science, are incomplete because they do not fully conceptualize something they have yet to experience. This study examines whether elementary pre-service teachers can consistently evaluate constructs such as self-efficacy and attitudes toward science throughout an elementary methods course. After the administration of traditional pre-tests, retrospective pre-tests, and post-tests, this study examined whether a response-shift bias consistently occurred in scales indicating science teaching self-efficacy (as measured by the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument-B), attitudes toward science (modified Attitudes Toward Science Inventory), and relevancy of science (Changes in Attitudes about the Relevancy of Science). Results indicate that a significant response-shift bias occurred in the scales relating to self-efficacy, confidence, and attitudes toward science; while no response-shift bias occurred in scales relating to outcome expectancy, value, and relevancy of science. Our data provide evidence that response-shifts naturally discriminate among different constructs and that participants successfully and consistently reported certain constructs over time which may be of interest for program evaluators and self-efficacy researchers. This research could have implications for program evaluators and researchers who need to measure program impacts on pre-service teachers with limited science-teaching experiences.     

Majoring in computer science: Causal models for women and men

Data taken from a questionnaire completed by 305 undergraduate students were used to test a causal model for predicting intent to major in computer science. The model, derived from an expectation × value theory framework, provided an acceptable fit to the data for both female and male samples. However, when the model was tested independently for males and females, there were some quantitative differences in the strength and significance of the causal paths. Attitudes toward mathematics appeared to play a more complex and stronger role in men's than in women's plans to major in computer science, while experience with computer science played a stronger, more positive role in women's than in men's plans.     

Self-concept in reading: Factor structure,cross-cultural invariance and relationships with reading achievement in an international context (PIRLS 2011)

Using data from 48 countries, this study investigated the factorial structure and tested the cross-cultural invariance of the PIRLS 2011 reading self-concept scale and its relationships with reading achievement. The study showed that a two-factorial structure of the self-concept scale in reading had the best fit with the data. Configural invariance and metric invariance were achieved, scalar invariance was not. The two dimensions ‘Perception of competence’ and ‘Perception of difficulty’ showed robust within-country correlations with reading achievement, especially the second one. At the country level, the ‘Perception of competence’ was negatively related with reading, illustrating the attitudes-achievement paradox: countries in which students on average reported a more positive self-concept performed lower. On the contrary, for the ‘Perception of difficulty’, the sign of the correlation remained the same at the within-country and at the country level.     

Religion and attitudes of college preservice teachers toward students with disabilities: implications for higher education

The study examined attitudes toward school inclusion of students with disabilities of 1,145 prospective teacher trainees from six national/religious groups in eleven colleges in Israel: The groups were secular, religious and ultra-orthodox Jews and Muslim, Christian and Druze Arabs. Participants responded to the “Opinion Related to Inclusion Scale”. Trainees in all six groups supported the principle of inclusion while simultaneously recognizing the need for segregated special education placements. Several significant group differences were found on the total score and the factor scores. The most supportive group of inclusion (i.e., the strongest rejection of segregation and the least concern about behavior problems) was the Jewish secular group followed by the Jewish religious group. The least support for inclusion was found for the ultra-orthodox Jewish group and the Arab groups. Implications for the preparation of educators in institutions of higher education were discussed.     

College education and attitudes toward democracy in China: an empirical study

The modernization theory contends that there is a link between education and democracy. Yet few empirical studies have been done to investigate the role of higher education on promoting democratic values in the Chinese context. Using China General Social Survey 2006, this paper generates several findings which are not completely consistent with the existing theoretical explanations on political development. Specifically, the college-educated Chinese citizens not only agree that there is need to improve democracy, but support various types of political participation and resist the government-oriented petitioning. However, though entrepreneurial elites (private business owners) and political elites (Chinese communist party members) demonstrate preference to democracy in principle, empirical evidence suggests that they are much less likely to support political participation that challenges the authoritarian regime in China compared to knowledge-based elites (college-educated adults).     

Pre-service teachers' beliefs about and attitudes toward mathematics: the case of Dudu

There is a need to move beyond the use of predetermined categories to classify teachers' orientations and an attempt should be made to understand, from the teachers' perspectives, their orientations and the beliefs from which they are generated. Such an understanding may help in the development of mathematics teacher education programmes that will assist teachers to formulate appropriate attitudes toward mathematics. This paper provides an in-depth study of one pre-service elementary teacher's views about mathematics and mathematics teaching. Dudu is a `case' that fits in with the emergent themes identified in the larger sample. Data for the study were collected by means of audio tape, an observational framework, field notes, student's written work and unstructured and formal interviews. The themes that emerged and that were emphasised by the participant were: limited vision for mathematics, construction of meaning in mathematics, knowledge of mathematics content and poor self-perception of pre-service primary mathematics teachers. The findings also suggest that although the participant reported uneasiness in learning mathematics, she was very enthusiastic about her teaching practice.     

Learning the hard way: Need for Cognition influences attitudes toward and self-reported use of desirable difficulties

We investigate the relationship between Need for Cognition (NFC), attitude towards and self-reported application of different desirable difficulties in self-regulated learning. Students with a higher NFC should be more appreciative and prone to use desirable difficulties because of a match between the learner’s attributes and the learning task requirements: cognitively effortful learning conditions will be preferred by students with a higher propensity for cognitive challenges. Supporting our hypotheses, we show that indeed a higher NFC positively relates to attitudes and use of different desirable difficulties (Study 1–2), especially to self-generating of materials and predictions, but weaker and inconsistently to interleaving/spacing and self-testing/practicing. While self-generating of contents and predictions loaded on one factor, and interleaving/spacing together with self-testing/practicing loaded on another factor, this two-factor structure was reliably obtained for self-reported use, yet for attitudes a one-factor structure did fit. Most importantly though, the observed relationship between NFC and different desirable difficulties could neither be explained by high school graduation grade, indicating academic competence (Study 1), nor by academic self-concept as one’s perception of one’s academic abilities (Study 2). Results are discussed within an information-processing framework related to implications for desirable difficulties as learning strategies.