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Attitude Measurement
Attitude Measurement
Semantic Differential
The semantic differential technique of Osgood et al. (1957) asks a person to rate an issue
or topic on a standard set of bipolar adjectives (i.e. with opposite meanings), each
representing a seven point scale.
To prepare a semantic differential scale, you must first think of a number of words with
opposite meanings that are applicable to describing the subject of the test.
For example, participants are given a word, for example 'car', and presented with a variety
of adjectives to describe it. Respondents tick to indicate how they feel about what is being
measured.
In the picture (above), you can find Osgood's map of people's ratings for the word 'polite'.
The image shows ten of the scales used by Osgood. The image maps the average
responses of two groups of 20 people to the word 'polite'.
Projective Techniques
To avoid the problem of social desirability, various indirect measures of attitudes have been
used. Either people are unaware of what is being measured (which has ethical problems)
or they are unable consciously to affect what is being measured.
Indirect methods typically involve the use of a projective test. A projective test is involves
presenting a person with an ambiguous (i.e. unclear) or incomplete stimulus (e.g. picture or
words). The stimulus requiresinterpretation from the person. Therefore, the persons
attitude is inferred from their interpretation of the ambiguous or incomplete stimulus.
The assumption about these measures of attitudes it that the person will project his or her
views, opinions or attitudes into the ambiguous situation, thus revealing the attitudes the
person holds. However, indirect methods only provide general information and do not offer
a precise measurement of attitude strength since it is qualitative rather than quantitative.
This method of attitude measurement is not objective or scientific which is a big criticism.
Examples of projective techniques include:
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Thematic Apperception Test (or TAT)
Draw a Person Task
The House-Tree-Person (HTP) test, created by Buck in 1948, provides a measure of a selfperception and attitudes by requiring the test taker to draw a house, a tree, and a person.
The picture of the house is supposed to conjure the child's feelings toward his or her family.
The picture of the tree is supposed to elicit feelings of strength or weakness. The picture of
the person, as with other figure drawing tests, elicits information regarding the child's selfconcept.
The HTP, though mostly given to children and adolescents, is appropriate for anyone over
the age of three.
Further Information
Attitude Measurement
Likert Scale
Semantic Differential
Attitudes and behaviors: How Can We Be Controlled?
References
Osgood, C.E, Suci, G.
Didactic
What? Didactic teaching remains the pedagogical mainstay of many traditional classrooms and traditional teachers. It
is the pedagogy of instruction and immutable facts, of authority and telling, and of right and wrong answers it is
teacher-centred and values learners who sit still and listen quietly and attentively, passively accepting the teacher as
the knower and expert, both the source of knowledge and judge-jury of knowing. Students who succeed in this setting
have learned to memorise and repeat the important points of the lesson with little gloss or interpretation, mimicking
the words of the teacher. Students unable to sit still or who interrupt the lesson are banished to a corner or from the
room altogether perhaps with chagrin or relief, or some complex combination of the two these learners do not
belong in the learning or to the didactic milieu. Such learners may be categorised as deficit or dull unable to
concentrate or more systematically diagnosed with a learning disorder or disability. The socio-spatial arrangement of
the didactic classroom is a blackboard or whiteboard at the front of the room with children seated at desks in rows
and facing the front. Kalantzis and Cope offer:
Being didactic means to spell things out explicitly but perhaps a little too laboriously, or to present a view of whats
true or right or moral but in a way that might at times seem dogmatic. So, the teacher tells and the learner listens.
Didactic teaching turns on what the teacher says rather than what the learner does. The balance of agency weighs
heavily towards the teacher. The teacher is in command of knowledge. His or her mission is to transmit this
knowledge to learners, and learners, it is hoped, dutifully absorb the knowledge laid before them by the teacher.
The concept of the didactic teacher and the didactic ideal of passive and compliant students is exemplified in David
Milgrims Cows Cant Fly, an early-years picture book. The story is of a little boy whose hand drawn picture of two
cows flying through the air inspires a herd of cows to take flight. Milgrim draws the teacher, Ms. Crumb standing
beside her blackboard pointing with a stick at the lesson on the board. Chalked, double-spaced and underscored in
upper case is the word G R A V I T Y with three large arrows, pointing down at a chalk drawn cow. The word G R A V I
T Y dominates the blackboard.
Next to the chalk drawn cow is the label massive object with an arrow pointing sideways at the cow. The combination
of the elements in this graphic tableau leave the reader with no room for doubt as to the teachers view. A powerful
sense of didactic authority is achieved by the way in which Ms. Crumb, her pointer and her blackboard dominate the
composition, almost filling the double page spread.
The children are depicted as a row of partially seen heads at the bottom of the page looking up at the teacher, as
small-seated-children everywhere must do with their adult teachers. Milgrims teacher is dismissive of the idea that
cows can fly. She is shown examining her fingernails and grimacing, pointing at the blackboard with her stick. We are
told in the text Ms. Crumb said cows were far too fat; that facts were facts, and that was that. However Milgrim
completely undermines the teachers self assuredness and sense of didactic authority with a small flying cow seen
through the window behind her. The image captures in an essential way the disdain with which figures of didactic
authority treat ideas that are not consistent with the textbook or canon. The dominant figure of the teacher and her
blackboard are beyond the challenge of the submissive seated child. This tableau captures in exaggerated caricature
the didactic teacher.
Why? Didactic teaching is not really consistent with the pedagogy of Learning by Design. A range of pedagogies
knowledge processes are proposed for learning facts, concepts and theories pedagogies which promote more
active learning and greater agency for the learner.
Curriculum
What? The term curriculum has come to mean many things to many people. Some people have a straight-forward
content-view of curriculum the subject-matter to be taught or, what students will learn in a course of study. The idea
of curriculum as set out in Wikipedia the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. Kalantzis
and Cope define curriculum a little more broadly, as:
The consciously designed framework for learning a body of knowledge or a set of capacities over an extended period
of timefor instance, a terms program in history or two-year program in chemistry.
This definition implies that a curriculum is something formal, which is set out in a framework and that this contentbody-of-knowledge-capacities are the consequence of forethought and deliberate choice.
Others take a more expansive view of curriculum as encompassing everything a school does to bring about learning,
including the what and how of learning and teaching.
Objectives
TOPICS
A. Defining Targets for Attitude Performance
B. Creating a Survey
C. Displaying Survey Results
Assignments
Objectives
1. Define appropriate classroom targets for attitude assessments.
2. Differentiate among open-ended, multiple choice, and ranking surveys.
3. Construct a classroom survey.
4. Create graphs and tables to effectively convey survey results.
Overview
It's no secret that motivated, interested students are more likely to succeed in school than students
who are apathetic or depressed. In addition to measuring students' knowledge, reasoning,
performance, and products, teachers also need to be able to gauge students' attitudes, feelings, and
interests.
Surveys can be an effective means for assessing student attitudes. This lesson concentrates on
defining appropriate targets for assessing student dispositions, creating effective survey instruments,
and developing charts and graphs to display survey results.
Try This
1. Think about the most recent survey that was conducted at your school. Reflect on these
questions:
o Why was the survey conducted?
o Was the reliability and validity of the survey checked?
o What was learned from the survey?
o What was changed at the school as a result of the survey?
B. Creating a Survey
Student attitudes and dispositions can be measured formally or informally. For example, teachers observe student
actions and expressions throughout the school day. Likewise, informal classroom interactions occur constantly, with
questions such as "Did you enjoy the movie?" "Why the sad face?" and "Do you think you'd like to be an astronaut?"
For this lesson, however, we will concentrate on a more formal format for attitude assessment -- a survey (also
referred to as a questionnaire).
Here are a few general guidelines for creating a survey.
Set your targets first -- make sure you know why you are conducting the survey.
Use a clear and concise writing style, at the appropriate reading level.
Don't ask questions that will embarrass anyone or invade students' privacy.
Keep survey results private -- do not leave them in places where others might access them.
Surveys can consist of open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, or rating scales that allow students
to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with specific statements. You can also use a combination of
approaches -- as long as it's clear to the student how to respond to the questions.
Open-Ended Surveys
Open-ended surveys contain questions, followed by an area for the student to fill in a response. This survey
type is generally used to obtain general, rather than specific, feedback from students. Writing open-ended
surveys is quite easy; however, compiling the results can be more difficult because these surveys don't use a
scale or ranking for options.
When writing questions for open-ended surveys, do not make the questions too general or ambiguous. For
example, suppose I would like to know your reaction to the online delivery of this course, and asked the
following question: "What do you think about the format of this class?" The problem is that "format" can be
ambiguous -- does it refer to online vs. classroom delivery; five lessons vs. ten; the structure of the lessons
and the use of Try Its; the evaluation requirements; or the timeframe? If you have a specific target (purpose)
for a question, you must make sure the question is clear.
Surveys can be conducted orally, on paper, or via a computer, and there are many tools available to help you
create surveys. For example, SurveyBuilder is a website that allows users to create free, online surveys.
Multiple-Choice Surveys
Is you have specific questions, with specific answer choices, the best approach might be to create a multiplechoice survey. For example, if I wanted to know which of the lessons in the course you felt was the most
relevant or difficult or time-consuming or meaningless, I could construct a multiple choice question, with the
lesson titles as the alternatives. For example:
Which lesson did you find most relevant for your classroom?
A. Basic Concepts
Try This
1. Review the Student Survey
o How many negative statements can you find?
o Why do you think they used a scale with five points instead of four?
o How would you classify the survey (open-ended, multiple-choice, or ranking scale)?
o What benefits did this teacher obtain from the attitude assessments?
o What items do you think should be added to the survey?
After you conduct an attitudinal assessment, you need to examine the results, and, if appropriate, make changes in
your classroom management, instruction, or interactions. In other words, if you are not going to act upon the results,
then don't conduct the survey.
There are many ways that survey data can be displayed and/or reported. The most common approach is to compile
the responses and create charts or graphs that can quickly convey the information.
For example, the University of Texas administered Attitude Toward Science Class surveys to over 400 students in
6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Looking strictly at the averages (means), it's difficult to get a picture of whether the attitudes
were improving or not.
For example, look at #23: "Science is one of my favorite classes."
Sixth Grade
Question
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade
Pretest
Mean
Posttest
Mean
Pretest
Mean
Posttest
Mean
Pretest
Mean
Posttest
Mean
3.3
2.7
3.6
3.8
3.1
3.0
Try This
Experiment with creating graphs and tables using Excel, PowerPoint, or the
online program, Create a Graph.