Attitude Questionnaires

Morning brother,

This article is talking about attitude evaluation, enthusiasm, and an example of its instrument to measure the attitude of student. I take this article from internet, and I met with Susan Burr collection. I forgot the address of its web, but maybe with this carbon copy, you may use it as reference.

Reference:

1. Susan Burr
   Observation 17th 2001 vol 5.
   Scottish teacher Researcher conference 2001
   

"An attitude is a mental state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting an influence upon an individual's response to an object and the situations with which it is related." (Allport)

Attitudes are complex and difficult to measure. There are many techniques but not all are suitable for use in school.

As a teacher researcher wanting to investigate the effect of new technology in school, one of the lines of research I followed was to use a questionnaire to ascertain the attitudes of my pupils to computers. There are a number of different ways of measuring attitude, the two methods I found most useful were the Likert and Semantic-Differential scales.

A 'Likert' survey is made up of a series of statements which are related to a person's attitude to a single object, in this case using computers in school. Statements are either favorable or unfavourable towards the object.

Example: Likert
Using a computer is exciting.
I would prefer the teacher to explain things rather than the computer.

Each pupil then has to respond to each statement by saying whether they strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, strongly disagree.

The Semantic-Differential method of measuring attitudes devised by Osgood consists of a concept, in this case using computers in schools, and a set of bipolar scales. The pupil has to indicate the direction and intensity of the association.

The response above would mean that the pupil found using computers in school very exciting, quite interesting and useless for girls.

Example: Semantic/ Differential

A pupil might describe using computers in school in the following way:
exciting		1		2		3		4	5	6	boring
interesting		1		2		3		4	5	6	dull
useful for girls	1	2	3	4	5	6	useless for girls

Getting Started

Having decided to use an attitude questionnaire the following need to be considered

1. Do I know anyone else who has done this before?
   Picking other folks brains is always useful, this is one of the jobs of the network. There are lots of articles describing work which has involved attitude measurement, you can start your library search with "Attitudes".
   
   
2. What type of survey do I want to do?
   You could use Likert or Semantic-Differential scales but whatever you choose must be appropriate and easy to make up.
   
   
3. How do I generate questions?
   This is especially important if you are using the Likert scale. The more ideas the better, pupils and colleagues can be asked to contribute.
   
   
4. How do I present the survey?
   Worked examples help the people who are going to fill in the survey.
   
   
5. Is my survey valid?
   There is no point in spending time on collecting data that means nothing. It is always a good idea to pilot your survey with a small group, it helps to iron out some of the problems.
   
   
6. The sample size must be big enough especially if you are going to subdivide into say boys and girls.
   You should be getting similar answers to similar questions.
   
   
7. What am I going to do with the results?
   These scales will give you negative and positive attitudes. You can also use them to compare two similar groups or to follow one group through a period of time and observe any change in attitude. If you are comparing groups or two sets of data from one individual you can use a X2 test to see if there is a change in attitude.

A good all-purpose reference to get you started is the International Encyclopedia of Education (see below), hopefully available in your local college of education or university library. This set of books together with the index gives further information about attitudes and their measurement, including the other types of scales available. The standard text on questionnaire design and attitude measurement is by A N Oppenheim, first published in 1966, 2nd revised edition 1992.

References of Burr's
Husen & Postlethwaite (ed) (1985) International Encyclopaedia of Education (research and studies) Pergamon Press.

OPPENHEIM, A N (1992) Questionnaire Design and Attitude Measurement. (2nd rev. ed.) Pinter Publications.