Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

Education

Supervisor

Neil, Nicole

Abstract

The aim of this review was to identify measurement tools used to assess students’ attitudes towards science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM) in publications, and evaluate their usefulness and appropriateness based on reported psychometric properties. Researchers look to also evaluate the content/subject area coverage as well as the attitude construct coverage of identified measures. Electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles that utilized a STEM attitude measurement tool with elementary or high school students. Publications were examined for reported psychometric properties of tools and the quality of each measure was evaluated using the psychometric grading framework (PGF). A total of 104 STEM attitude measures were identified within the literature. Many (n = 83) identified measures lacked pertinent reliability and/or validity data and could not be evaluated using the PGF within the current review. Fifteen measures were evaluated, with eleven receiving the highest overall grade of “Good” using the PGF.

Summary for Lay Audience

As the world becomes more technologically advanced, more career positions are available in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, student enrollment in said academic courses is decreasing and reported attitudes towards STEM are low in adolescence. It is pertinent to increase STEM engagement and interest in students due to the relationship between various internal/motivational factors such as self-efficacy and interest and its subsequent effect on future outcomes. Researchers are attempting to accomplish this via various educational programs. Unfortunately, research that evaluates STEM attitude measurement tools is lacking, thereby making it difficult to accurately ensure educational efforts are achieving their desired goals of targeting student attitudes. This review aims to identify measurement tools used to assess students’ attitudes towards science, technology, engineering, and/or math in publications, as well as evaluate said tools usefulness and appropriateness based on reported psychometric properties. Electronic databases were searched for articles that used a STEM attitude measurement tool with elementary or high school students. Articles were examined for reported reliability and validity information of tools and the quality of each measure was evaluated using this extracted data. A total of eleven STEM attitude measures were found within the literature, that were identified within multiple research articles, publishing reliability and validity information. These eleven measures were evaluated for their definition of attitudes, the STEM subject areas included, and the strength of psychometric data. These measures were ultimately awarded a high grade and recommended for use by the present researchers.

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