Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TEST OF SCIENCE-RELATED
ATTITUDES
HA}TDBOOK
BAITRY J. FRASER
MacquarieUniversity
Publishedby
The Australian Council for EducationalResearchLimited
Radford House,Frederick Street,Hawthorn, Victoria 3122
Copyright@B.J.Fraserl98l
The materialsin this publication may not be reproducedwithout permissionfrom the publisherwith the below-men-
tioned exception:
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tion that they are not made available to usersby way of trade or sale.
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction
Feedbackon the Use of TOSRA
Background
Scopeof TOSRA
Response Formatof TOSRAltems 2
Administration andScoring 3
PreviousBatteryof FiveAttitudeScales 3
Developmentof TOSRA 3
StatisticalInformation for Years 7-lO 3
Samples 3
Means 4
StandardDeviations 4
Reliability 4
Discriminant Validity 4
Cross-Validationin Australia and the United States 6
Usesof TOSRA 6
References 8
Appendix I: Instructionsfor Administration and Scoring 9
Appendix II: ScaleAllocation and Scoringfor Each Item ll
Tables
Figure
PREVIOUSBATTERYOF FIVE
ATTITUDE SCALES STATISTICALINFORMATION
FORYEARS7-10
TOSR A is an ex t ensi o no f a p re v i o u sb a tte ryo f a tt i tude
sca l e sc ont aining earl i e r v e rs i o n so f th e fo l l o w i n g fi ve
TOSRA s c ales :S oc i a lImp l i c a ti o n so f Sc i e n c eA , tt i tude A versi on of TOS R A w as admi ni steredduri ng 1977 t o
to Scient if ic I nquir y , Ad o p ti o n o f S c i e n ti fi cA tti tudes, a l arge sampl e of studentsi n the S ydneymetro polit an
En j o ym ent of S c ien c eL e s s o n sa n d L e i s u re In te r est i n area at the Y eai 7-10 l evel . S tati sti calanal yseswer e
Sci e n c e.Howev er , a s th e d e v e l o p me n t a n d v a l i d ati on performed on these data i n order to i denti fy cer t ain
o f th e ear lier bat t er y o f fi v e s c a l e sh a v e b e e n d i s cussed i tems w hi ch coul d be del etedfrom the battery i n or der
a t l e ngt h els ewher e (F ra s e r, 1 9 7 7 c ), o n l y th e three to reduce the l ength of each scal e to l 0 i tems and t o
ma i n st agesin t he de v e l o p me n ta re m e n ti o n e d b ri efl y enhance the overal l scal e characteri sti cs.Then, f or
b e l o w . F ir s t a v er si o n o f e a c h s c a l e w a s a s s e mbl ed, each refi ned scal e contai ni ng l 0 i tems, the following
b a se d on ex is t ing i n s tru me n ts a n d re a c ti o n s from four scal e stati sti csw ere cal cul ated: mean, sta ndar d
sci e n c et eac her sand e x p e rts i n e d u c a ti o n a l m e a sure- d e v i a t i o n ,r e l i a b i l i t y ,a n d s c a l ei n t e r c o r r e l a t i o n .
me n t about eac h i te m' s c l a ri ty . re a d a b i l i ty , face
va l i d i ty , and s c aleal l o c a ti o n . S e c o n dr-t.
re v i s e dv ersi on
w a s a s s em bled,bas e do n e v i d e n c efro n r a n a l y s i so f data
Samples
co l l e c t ed dur ing t he fi e l d te s ti n go f th e fi rs t v e rs ion of
th e scales wit h a s a mp l e o f 1 6 5 Ye a r 7 s tu d e nts i r:
Tabl e 2 descri besthe sampl ei nvol ved i n the fi eld t est -
Me l b our ne. T hir d t he re v i s e dv e rs i o n o f e a c h s c a l ew as
i ng of TOS R A at each l evel . Thi s tabl e i ndi cat est hat
fi e l d tes t edwit h a lar g e s a mp l eo f I 1 5 8 Ye a r 7 s tudents
the total sampl econsi stedof 1337studentsi n 44 classes
i n Me lbour ne and wa s s h o w n to h a v e s a ti s fa c to ri l yhi gh
drawn from I I different schools.In fact, each of the I I
reliability.
school sprovi ded four typi cal and comparabl eclasses,
one eachat the Y ear 7 , 8,9 and I 0 l evel .The reas onf or
DEVELOPMENTOFTOSRA draw i ng onl y one cl assat eachgrade l evel from a single
school w as to i nvol ve the broadestspectrumof schools
possi bl efor a gi ven sampl e si ze, w hi l e the reas on f or
Th e p r ev ious bat t ery o f fi v e a tti tu d e s c a l e s w a s ex- draw i ng the sampl e at each grade l evel from the sam e
te n d e d and im pr ov e d i n fo u r w a y s to fo rm T O S R A . set of school s w as to enabl e meani ngful comp ar ison
Fi rst two new s c al e s , N o rm a l i ty o f S c i e n ti s t s and betw een stati sti csat di fferent grade l evel s. Table 2
Ca re e r I nt er es t in Sc i e n c e , w e re a d d e d . Se cond, show s that the sampl e si ze w as 340 i n year 7, 335 in
whereas the previous battery involved three different Year 8, 338 in Year 9, and 324 in Year 10.
se ts o f adm inis t r at io n i n s tru c ti o n sa n d a n s w e ri n gfor- The sampl e of school s, al though not random ly
ma ts, T O S RA was de s i g n e dw i th a s i n g l es c t o f i n struc- chosen for a variety of reasons,was carefully selected
ti o n s and ans wer in g fo rm a t. T h i rd , w h i l e d i fferent to cover a vari ety of soci oeconomi cand geog r aphic
sca l e sin t he pr ev ious b a tte ry c o n ta i n e dd i ffe re n t n um- areas and to be representati veof the popul ation of
b e rs o f it em s ,T O S RA w a s d e s i g n e dw i th th e s a men um- school s i n the S ydney metropol i tan area. The I I
b e r o f it em s ( nam ely l 0 ) i n e a c hs c a l ei n o rd e r to fa ci l i - school s i n the sampl e consi stedof fi ve coeduca t ional
tate ready comparison between performance on government hi gh school s,tw o si ngl e-sexgovernm ent
d i ffe re nt s c ales .F ou rth , w h e re a s th e o ri g i n a l b a ttery hi gh school s(one boys and one gi rl s), rw o i ndependent
w a s fi eld t es t ed and v a l i d a te d u s i n g o n l y s a m p lesof C athol i cschool s(oneboysandonegi rl s),andrw o i n depen-
stu d e nt s at t he Y ea r 7 l e v e l , th e fi e l d te s ti n g and dent non-C athol i c school s (one boys and one gir ls) .
va l i d a t ion of T O S R A i n v o l v e d s tu d e n ts a t a l l four The sampl eat each l evel contai nedapproxi matelyequal
j u n i o r h i g h s c h o o lg r a d e l e v e l s ( Y e a r s 7 - 1 0 ) . numbersof boysandgi rl s.
Table 2 Sample Sizesfor Years 7-10 the meanof the sevenscalecoetficients.The valuesof theot
reliability coefticientrangedfrom 0.66 to 0.93 with a mean
of 0.82 tor the Y ear 7 sampl e,from 0.64 to 0.93 wit h a
Number of Number of meanof 0.80 tor the Y ear8 sampl e,trom 0.69 to 0. 92 wit h
Year
classesa students a meanof 0.8 | for the Year 9 sample,and from 0.67 to 0.93
w i th a meanof 0.84 for the Y ear l 0 sampl e.Thesevalues
7 ll 340 tbr the reliability coefficientare generallyhigh for scales
whose length is only l0 items, and all values are large
8 ll 335
enough to indicatethat eachTOSRA scalehad quite good
9 ll 338 i nternalconsi stency rel i abi l i tyat eachl evel .
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Table 4 Cross-ValidationData from Australia and United States
So ci al I m plic at ions o f
Science 0.80 0.81 0.81 0.81 0.76 0.37 0.38
Normality of Scientists 0 . 7| 0.69 0.71 0.73 0.63 0.23 0.23
Attitude to Inquiry 0.81 0.82 0.83 0.69 0.84 0.25 0.29
Adoption of Scientific
Attitudes 0.62 0.64 0.67 0.68 0.64 0.38 0.36
Enjoyment of Science
Lessons 0.91 0.90 0.90 0.91 0.92 0.43 0.34
Leisure Interest in Science 0.86 0.84 0.87 0.87 0.86 0 . 38 0.38
Career Interest in Science 0.88 0.85 0.88 0.88 0.87 0.40 0.42
Score
50
45
40
'
35 \
\
30
\
25
20
l5
l0
N A E L C
TOSRA scale
t a i n e d b y a l a r g e r a n d b r o a d e r s a m p l e .I n p a r t i c u l a r , may not be very meani ngtul ,di fferencesap pr oaching
te a c her sc ould f in d i t h e l p fu l to c o mp a re th ei r cl ass' s one square on the gri d of Fi gure I are l i k ely t o be
mean s c or eswit h th e m e a n so b ta i n e db y th e l a r ger sam- educati onall y i mportant.
p l e of 1337 Y ear 7 -1 0 s ru d e n tsi n v o l v e d i n the fi el d To date many research w orkers and m any nt or e
te s t ingof T O S RA . T h e m e a n sfo r th e fi e l d -te s ti ngsam- teachershave used TOS R A i n a number of dif f er ent
p l e ar e r ec or ded i n T a b l e 3 a n d , b e c a u s es tu dentsat countri es.W hat feedbacki nformati on i s available f r onr
d i tl- er entgr ade le v e l s te n d e d to o b ta i n s i m i rar scores, these userssuggeststhat the cl assroomadm inist r at ion
a re plot t ed on a gri d to fo rm th e s i n g l ep ro fi l e show n i n of TOS R A ran smoothl y and that the test w a s f ound t o
Figure l. be useful . A l though i t i s too earl y yet for t he ap-
Teac her s ar e c a u ti < tn e da g a i n s t b e i n g o v e rl y con- pearanceof many publ i shedreports descri b ingt he use
ce r ned if t heir s t u d e n ts 's c o re sd e v i a te fro m the mean of TOS R A for researchpurposes,several ar t icles ar e
p rof ile s hown in F i g u re l . N e v e rth e l e s si t i s h oped that a l r e a d ya v a i l a b l e .F o r e x a m p l e .u s eo f e a r l i e r v e r s i o n s
i n ter pr et at ionof t h e me a n T OS R A s c o re so b tai ned by of some of TOSRA's scalesin twr-rseparatesciencecur-
a p ar t ic ular gr oup o f s tu d e n tsmi g h t b e fa c i l i tated by ri cul um eval uati onstudi eshas been reported by Fr aser
d ra wing a pr of ile fo r th a t g ro u p a n d c o m p a ri ng i t .,vi th ( 1 9 1 9 ) a n d F i s h e r a n d F r a s e r( 1 9 8 0 ) .A l s o , s t u d i e so f
th e pr of ile of m e a n s s h o w n i n F i g u re I fo r the fi el d- rel ati onshi ps betw een studcnts' sci ence-relat ed at -
te st ing s am ple. B y d o i n g th i s , i t c a n b e re a d i ly ascer- ti tudes and thei r percepti onsof psychosocialchar ac-
ta i ned whet her t h e s c o re sfo r a s p e c i fi c g ro u p of stu- teri sti csof thei r cl assrooml earni ng envi ronm ent have
d e n t s ar e abov e o r b e l o w th e m e a n so b ta i n e d b y other been conductedusi ng al l scal escontai ned i n t he f inal
studentsat the junior high school level. While versi on of TOS R A (Fraser and B utts, i n pr ess) and
d i ffer enc esof only o n e m a rk b e tw e e ns c o re so btai ned sel ected scal es from an earl i er versi on of TO SRA
b y z r par t ic ular gro u p a n d b y th e fi e l d te s ti n g sampl e (Fraser, 1979: Fi sher and Fraser, i n press).
REFERENCES
Australian ScienceEducation Project.A Guide to ASEP. Melbourne:GovernmentPrinter, 1974.
Block,J. The equivalence of measuresandthe correctionfor attenuation . Psychological Bulletin,1963,60,1524.
Cohen, D. Curriculum objective:Scientificattitudes.Paperpresentedat ANZAAS Congress,Brisbane,May 1971.
Cohen,D. Can scientificattitudesbe evaluated? Research,1971,135-43.
Cronbach,L.J. Coefficientalpha and the internal structureoftests. Psychometrika,1951,16,29'1-:334.
Curriculum DevelopmentCentre.Report of ASEP TeacherEducqtion GuidelinesConference.Canberra:1977.
Fisher, D.L. and Fraser, B.J. A replication of the effectsof.using ASEP materialson student attitudes.Austrqliqn
ScienceTeachersJournal, 1980,26(2),80-2.
Fisher, D.L. and Fraser,B.J. Validity and useofmy classinventory.ScienceEducation(in pressl.
Fraser, B.J. Attitude to the social implications of science:Its measurementand correlates. Austrqlian Science
TeachersJournal, 1977, 23(Z),96-9. (a)
, Fraser,B.J. Perceptionsof the normality of scientistsamongjunior high schoolstudents. Search,1917,8,240-l . (b)
Fraser,B.J. Selectionand validationof attitudescalesfor curriculumevaluation.ScienceEducation,1977,61,
317-29. (c\
Fraser,B.J.Developmentof a testof science-related attitudes.ScienceEducation,l978.62. 509- I5.
Fraser, B.J. Evaluationof a science-based curriculum. ln H.J. Walberg (Ed,.),Ed.ucationalEnvironmentsand
Effects:Evaluqtion, Policy, and Productivity. Berkeley,Calif.: Mccutchan, 1979.
Fraser, B.J. and Butts, W.L. Relationshipbetweenlevels of perceivedclassroomindividualization and science-rel-
ated attitudes.Joxrnal of Researchin ScienceTeqching(in pressr.
Hurd, P. De H. New CurriculumPerspectivesfor Junior High SchoolScience. Belmont.Calif.:Wadsworth,1970.
Klopfer, L.E. Evaluationof learningin science.In B.S.Bloom,J.T. Hastings,and G.F. Madaus(Eds),Handbook
on Summqtiveqnd FormativeEvaluation of StuclentLearning. New York: Mccraw-Hill, l97l .
Likert, R. Techniquefor the measurementof attitudes.Archivesof Psychology,1932,No. l4O.
Lucas, K.B. and Tulip, D.F. Scientific literacy of high school students.Paper presentedat Annual Conferenceof
Australian ScienceTeachersAssociation,Canberra, September1980.
Mead,M. and Mtraux,R. Imageofthe scientistamonghighschoolstudents. Science, 1957,126,384-90.
Owen, J.M. The Impact ofthe Australian ScienceEclucationProject on Schools.Canberra:Curriculum Develop-
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Schibeci,R.A. and McGaw, B. Analysisof data from attitude instruments.In Australian Associationfor Researchin
Education. Yotnh, Schooling and Enplovnent: Ptpers Presenretl the lgtj| Annudl Co feren(r,. Sr'rlrcr'.
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Zoller, U. and Watson,F.G. Teachertrainingfor the 'secondgeneration' of science
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Appendix I
INSTRUCTIONS
FORADMINISTRATION ANDSCORING
Time required i tems, the mi ni mum and maxi mum score spossi-
I No t im e lim it s h o u l d b e a p p l i e d w h e n a d mi ni ster- bl e on each scal e are l 0 and 50, respect ively.
ing TOSRA (although it is not necessaryto allow Scalescores,however, cannot be added to form a
exceptionally slow students to finish). The ap- meaningful total score. For people wishing to
proximate time taken for instructions and answer- scoreTOSRA by hand (rather than by computer),
ing rangesfrom 30-45 minutes at the Year 7 level use can be made of the convenient hand Score
t o 25- 30 m inu te s a t th e Y e a r l 0 l e v e l . Key describedbelow.
4 7 (+)
34 (+)
4l (-)
48(+)
35 (-)
42 (+)
4e (-)
s0 (-) sr (+) s2 (-) s3(-) 54 (-) ss(-) s6 (+)
s7 (+) s8(-) se (+) 60 (+) 6 l (+) 62(+) 63(-)
64 (-) 6s(+) 66 (-) 67 (-) 6 8 (-) 6e (-) 70 (+)
l l
TOSRN
TESTOF SCIENCE.RELATEDATTITUDES
Barry J. Fraser
DIRECTIONS
Publishedby
The AustralianCouncil for Educational Research Limited
Radford House.Frederick Street, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122
Copyright@B.J.Fraserl98l
Name
School Year/Class
gl
t r'r It In Lrr | rq I lYr lrl
Iq l=r4
n
9 , H g p 1 p 9 , H8 H 9 H id
X n He & e e
e
6 HH I H6 ?
f Q? 2 8 ; 3
9 nH 7 3 e 3
'6<
I-V \J \J H I-t<
a
'a<
lr
x xH 3 ? 3
\,, \./ L.' 3- -.
l S A A N D S D 29 S A A N D S D 50 S A A N D S D
2 SA A'N D SD 30 S A A N D S D 5l S A A N D S D
3 S A A N D S D 31 S A A N D S D 52 S A A N D S D
4 S A A N D S D 32 S A A N D S D 53 S A A N D S D
5 S A A N D S D 33 S A A N D S D 54 S A A N D S D
6 S A A N D S D v S A A N D S D 55 S A A N D S D
T S A A N D S D 35 S A A N D S D 56 S A A N D S D
S S A A N D S D 36 S A A N D S D 57 S A A N D S D
g S A A N D S D 37 S A A N D S D s8 S A A N D S D
T O S A A N D S D 38 S A A N D S D 59 S A A N D S D
11 SA A N. D SD 39 S A A N D S D 60 S A A N D S D
1 2 S A A N D S D 40 S A A N D S D 6r S A A N D S D
1 3 S A A N D S D 4l S A A N D S D 62 S A A N D S D
1 4 S A A N D S D 42 S A A N D S D 63 S A A N D S D
1 5 S A A N D S D 43 S A A N D S D ffi S A A N D S D
1 6 S A A N D S D u S A A N D S D 65 S A A N D S D
I T S A A N D S D 45 S A A N D S D 66 S A A N D S D
l S S A A N D S D 46 S A A N D S D 67 S A A N D S D
I g S A A N D S D 47 S A A N D S D 68 S A A N D S D
2 0 S A A N D S D 48 S A A N D S D 69 S A A N D S D
2 I S A A N D S D 49 S A A N D S D 70 S A A N D S D
2 2 S A A N D S D
2 3 S A A N D S D For TeacherUse Only
2 4 S A A N D S D
2 5 S A A N D S D
2 6 S A A N D S D S- N - I - A - E - L - C -
2 T S A A N D S D
2 S S A A N D S D
The Australian Council for Educational Research Limited, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122. Copyright @ B.J. Fraser l98l Test of Science-Related Attitudes