Psychological Factors as Predictors of Science Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Test Item Construction in Ondo State, Nigeria (Published)
The study investigated selected psychological factors as predictors of secondary school science teachers’ attitudes toward efficient test item construction in Ondo State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The sample consisted of one hundred and eight (108) science teachers drawn from the entire population through multistage sampling procedures. The data for the study were collected using structured questionnaire developed by the researchers. The reliability of the two instruments was determined using test-retest method with the coefficient (r) equal 0.68 and 0.73. Descriptive statistics were used to answer two research questions while Multiple Regression and t-test were used for the hypotheses and tested at .05 level of significance. The findings revealed that psychological factors (Teachers’ motivation, stress at work, teachers’ perception, perseverance/endurance and self-efficacy) significantly predicted secondary school science teachers’ efficient item construction attitudes (F = 84.411; p < 0.05), and each with beta weight as teachers’ motivation (β = 0.282, p < 0.05) stress at work (β = 0.187, p < 0.05), teachers’ perception (β = 0.375, p < 0.05), perseverance/endurance (β = 0.305, p < 0.05) and self-efficacy (β = 0.223, p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the attitude of male and female science teachers towards efficient items construction (t = -.028, df = 106, p > 0.05). Based on the findings, it was concluded that teachers’ attitudes toward efficient test item construction are largely determined by their psychological dispositions rather than gender while teacher’s perception was the best predictor among the predictors. Therefore, it was recommended that educational stakeholders should focus on enhancing teachers’ motivation, self-efficacy and more on teachers’ perception and stress, while implementing strategies to reduce work-related stress.
Keywords: psychological factors, teachers’ attitudes, test item construction