Chikodiri C. Ikwueze, Ursula N. Akanwa, Alphonsus 0. Ovute & Madu A. Onuabuchi
Udechukwu, Jonathan & Ogidi, Reuben C.
DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHY
ATTITUDE SCALE USING RASCH MODEL IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA
The study was designed to develop an instrument that will be used to
assess students' attitude to geography using the Rasch model. The
instrumentation design was adopted for the study. The sample was 850
students from 78 secondary schools using multistage sampling. An
instrument called Geography Attitude Scale (GAS) was validated using
face, factorial and test-of-the-assumption-of-unidimensional validation.
Based on these, 38 items were discarded while the 42 items that met the
set criteria formed the final instrument. Data were analysed using Rasch
rating scale model software WJNSTEPS (version 3:81) to answer the
research questions and test hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The
Rasch model expectation fits were met by 40 out of 42 items. The item
threshold showed that 20 items were with positive values while 22 items
had negative measures. Item and person separation index revealed good
spread of items and persons from high difficulty to low difficulty level of
endorsement and into higher and lower levels of attitude respectively. It
was recommended that instrument GAS should be used to assess attitude
of students towards geography in secondary schools.
Keywords: Development, Geography, Attitude, Rasch Model.
Chikodiri C. Ikwueze, Ursula N. Akanwa, Alphonsus 0. Ovute & Madu A. Onuabuchi Udechukwu, Jonathan & Ogidi, Reuben C.
DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHY ATTITUDE SCALE USING RASCH MODEL IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA
The study was designed to develop an instrument that will be used to assess students' attitude to geography using the Rasch model. The instrumentation design was adopted for the study. The sample was 850 students from 78 secondary schools using multistage sampling. An instrument called Geography Attitude Scale (GAS) was validated using face, factorial and test-of-the-assumption-of-unidimensional validation. Based on these, 38 items were discarded while the 42 items that met the set criteria formed the final instrument. Data were analysed using Rasch rating scale model software WJNSTEPS (version 3:81) to answer the research questions and test hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The Rasch model expectation fits were met by 40 out of 42 items. The item threshold showed that 20 items were with positive values while 22 items had negative measures. Item and person separation index revealed good spread of items and persons from high difficulty to low difficulty level of endorsement and into higher and lower levels of attitude respectively. It was recommended that instrument GAS should be used to assess attitude of students towards geography in secondary schools. Keywords: Development, Geography, Attitude, Rasch Model.