Validating an instrument for use in assessing the technological literacy of upper secondary school students
Conference Paper
2014-09-23
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South African Association of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
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University of Cape Town
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South African Association of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
Abstract
In this paper an instrument for assessing upper secondary school students‘ levels of technological literacy is presented. The items making up the instrument emerged from a previous study that used a phenomenographic research approach to explore students‘ conceptions of technological literacy in terms of their understanding of the nature of technology and their interaction with technological artefacts. The instrument was validated through administration to 969 students on completion of their 12 years of formal schooling. A factor analysis and Cronbach alpha reliability co-efficient was conducted on the data and the results show that a four-dimension factor structure (namely, Artefact, Process, Direction/Instruction, and Tinkering) strongly supported the dimensions as developed during the original phenomenographic study. The Cronbach alpha reliability co-efficient of each dimension was satisfactory. Based on these findings, the instrument has been shown to be valid and reliable and can be used with confidence.
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This is an extract, with permission, from the proceedings of the 2013 SAARMSTE Conference.
Reference:
Luckay, M. B., & Collier-Reed, B. I. (2013). Validating an instrument for use in assessing the technological literacy of upper secondary school students. Paper presented at the South African Association of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, Cape Town, South Africa, 391-401.