Offor, Moses, Ikeh Elochukwu Francis, Barnabas C. Madu & Ajakaiye Olusegun Abraham
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF MEASUREMENT SCALE FOR ASSESSING BIOLOGY STUDENTS' MOTIVATION
IN LEARNING IN IDAH EDUCATION ZONE OF KOGI STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate measurement scale for assessing students' motivation in the learning of biology in Idah ducation zone, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions. The design adopted was Instrumentation and all Biology students in 38 senior secondary schools in Idah education zone, constituted the population for the study, from which 480 was drawn as a sample size. The questionnaire used for data collection was developed by the researchers and titled Students' Motivation for Learning Biology Scale (SMLBS). The instrument was designed on a 4-point rating scale of Strongly Agree; Agree; Disagree; and Strongly Disagree. The face validity of the initial draft instrument (SMLBS) was confirmed through experts' judgement. Based on the advice of experts, the instrument was modified accordingly. The reliability of the instrument was obtained through trial-testing to find out the degree of consistency of the items. Thirty (30) biology students participated in the trial testing. The purpose of trial- testing was to find out the degree of consistency of the items. The items of the instrument were polytomously scored. As a result of this; the reliability was tested using Cronbach's Alpha. The reliability coefficients for clusters A to F were 0.83, 0.83, 0.87, 0.70, 0.88 and 0.71 respectively with an overall reliability coefficient of 0.80. This shows that the instrument was good enough for the study. The instrument was administered and retried at spots by the researchers and two research assistants. Research question one was analysed using factor analysis. Cronbach Alpha was used to analyse research question two. Forty-three (43) items were found to be valid out of the initial 63 items. The findings of this study among others, indicated that, the items of the instrument
provided a valid and reliable measure of students' motivation to learn biology. From the findings, the researchers recommended among others that curriculum planners should always involve teachers for effective implementation of students' motivation in the learning process, because teachers are, to a great extent, the real implementers of secondary school curriculum.
Keywords: Biology, Motivation, Assessment, Development
Offor, Moses, Ikeh Elochukwu Francis, Barnabas C. Madu & Ajakaiye Olusegun Abraham
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF MEASUREMENT SCALE FOR ASSESSING BIOLOGY STUDENTS' MOTIVATION IN LEARNING IN IDAH EDUCATION ZONE OF KOGI STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract The purpose of this study was to develop and validate measurement scale for assessing students' motivation in the learning of biology in Idah ducation zone, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions. The design adopted was Instrumentation and all Biology students in 38 senior secondary schools in Idah education zone, constituted the population for the study, from which 480 was drawn as a sample size. The questionnaire used for data collection was developed by the researchers and titled Students' Motivation for Learning Biology Scale (SMLBS). The instrument was designed on a 4-point rating scale of Strongly Agree; Agree; Disagree; and Strongly Disagree. The face validity of the initial draft instrument (SMLBS) was confirmed through experts' judgement. Based on the advice of experts, the instrument was modified accordingly. The reliability of the instrument was obtained through trial-testing to find out the degree of consistency of the items. Thirty (30) biology students participated in the trial testing. The purpose of trial- testing was to find out the degree of consistency of the items. The items of the instrument were polytomously scored. As a result of this; the reliability was tested using Cronbach's Alpha. The reliability coefficients for clusters A to F were 0.83, 0.83, 0.87, 0.70, 0.88 and 0.71 respectively with an overall reliability coefficient of 0.80. This shows that the instrument was good enough for the study. The instrument was administered and retried at spots by the researchers and two research assistants. Research question one was analysed using factor analysis. Cronbach Alpha was used to analyse research question two. Forty-three (43) items were found to be valid out of the initial 63 items. The findings of this study among others, indicated that, the items of the instrument provided a valid and reliable measure of students' motivation to learn biology. From the findings, the researchers recommended among others that curriculum planners should always involve teachers for effective implementation of students' motivation in the learning process, because teachers are, to a great extent, the real implementers of secondary school curriculum. Keywords: Biology, Motivation, Assessment, Development