INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION
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Item Development and validation of students' attitude to economics scale using item response theory(Educational Assessment and Research Network in Africa (EARNiA), 2020-11) Adekoya, P. A.; Akorede, S. F.As important as attitude scales are in the teaching and learning domain, scales on affective traits are relatively limited especially those developed by using IRT based models. This study developed and validated an instrument-the Students Attitude to Economics Scale (SATES), using the IRT model. At the initial exploratory stage, data obtained from a sample of973 high school economics students were subjected to parallel and full information item factor analyses with multidimensional graded response model. This was based on the number of dimensions identified under parallel analysis to identify the interpretable factors underlying the scale. A total of 14 items of the initial 55 constructed items emerged with four factors named; difficulty of economics, performance in economics, benefits of economics and pedagogy of economics. To assess the construct validity of the SATES, the differential functioning of the items on the scale, with respect to the sex of the respondents, were assessed. The results showed that all the 14 items had insignificant chi-square value (p > 0.05). Meaning that all the 14 items that survived item analysis functioned similarly among males and females, hence were valid items. To estimate the reliability of the 14-item SATES, the responses of the testees to the 14 items were subjected to empirical reliability analysis, an IRT based reliability estimate. The outcome revealed a reliability estimate of 0.75, 0.73, 0.84, and 0.79 for each of the four factors respectively, hence 0.78 for the SATES. To cross-validate the 14-item SATES, it was administered to another sample of 1,274 high school economics students, and the invariance of the scale was assessed. To achieve this, response was subjected to multiple group multidimensional item response theory analyses. This provided evidence of the construct validity of the instrument, indicating that the instrument is a valid and reliable tool for measuring senior secondary school students' attitude towards economics.Item Learning style preferences of senior secondary school economics students(Faculty of Education, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana, 2020-09) Adekoya, P. A.; Akorede, S. F.Despite the increasing number of candidates offering economics in senior secondary schools and the importance of the subject to entrepreneurship education, performance of students in public examinations, such as the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), in the subject has been low and oscillating between, below-average and average performance. The cause of this oscillating and sometimes poor learning outcome has been attributed to many factors; chief among them is the background characteristics of students- of which learning style is one. To the best of the knowledge of the researcher, few studies have been done in the area of learning style of senior secondary school economics students. This prompted the researchers to undertake this survey research- to investigate the dominant learning style of high school economics students; so as to assist teachers to put in place teaching methods/aids that accentuate teaching efficiency and better learning outcomes. The Kolb learning style inventory (KLSI) version 3.1(2005) was administered to a sample of 560 senior secondary 1, 2 and 3 students, from a population of senior secondary school students offering economics in Ogun state, Nigeria. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics- frequency counts and percentages and chi-square tests. Findings of the study reveal an even distribution of the four selected learning styles, among the sample used for the study. However, Reflective learning style was the most prevalent style, (27%) followed by both Abstract learning style (25%) and Concrete learning style (25%), the Active learning style being the least, (23%). In addition, there was no significant association between class (X2t 0.384 and P=0.999), gender (X2, 0.220 and P=0.974) and subject area specialization (X2, 1.243 and P=0.999) of students and learning styles. It is recommended that teachers of high school economics adopt multiple teaching methods/aids so as to meet the diverse learning styles of students.