The construction of attitudinal scales to appraise values -embedded education
Abstract
This study was aimed at constructing a valid and reliable set of two measurement instruments to appraise Values-Embedded Education (VEE) in students attending public schools in the 6th and 9 th grades. VEE is a program currently carried out by Educación en Valores, a non-profit organization established eleven years ago in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, one of the most violent cities in northern Mexico. VEE is operationally defined as a didactic methodology, whose ultimate goal is aimed at promoting a holistic school operation, which successfully “promotes human dignity and harmonic coexistence” (Pliego, 1997, p. 4). Fourteen dilemmas based upon Kohlberg’s theory were constructed to assess self perception regarding concepts of morality and social convention in students all over the city. 114 instruments were administered at 60 schools, thirty of them with the program and thirty without it. Cronbach’s alpha and the Gutmann split-half coefficient were conducted to assess reliability. T-test was conducted to assess differences of students using the program and those not using it. Factorial analysis, with varimax rotation, was used to identify those components within the instrument likely to be associated to reduce the variables measured in a future test. Finally, ANOVA, with Scheffe’s post-hoc, was conducted in order to identify possible differences in means as a result of the students’ age. High levels of reliability were found in the instruments. The statistical analysis did not identify the VEE as a significant factor in students’ responses. The fourteen dilemmas are possible to be reduced to six factors. Finally, age was not a factor in students’ responses.
Subject Area
Educational evaluation|Curricula|Teaching
Recommended Citation
Rubio Pallares, Rene, "The construction of attitudinal scales to appraise values -embedded education" (2007). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI3273987.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI3273987