implications for teacher education in Pakistan

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Contemporary Educational

Researches Journal

1 (2012) 8-14

Attitude of prospective teachers towards research: implications for

teacher education in Pakistan

Fariha Bibia, Hafiz Muhammad Lqbal

b*, Nadia Majid

c

aUniversity of Modern Languages, Islamabad

bInstitute of Education and Research, University of the Punjab, Lahorec

College of Art and Design, University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan

Abstract

An instrument, attitude to research (ATR) developed by Papanastasiou (2005) and having alpha reliability value of 0.948 was

administered to 277 graduate students enrolled in different programmes to validate the instrument and also measure their

attitude. Out of 277 respondents, 40 were males and 237 females. The results of the study validated the factor structure of

ATR scale as developed by Papanastasiou. Out of the 32 items in the original scale 3 items were rejected due to low

correlation and two statements were rejected due to low factors loading. The final scale comprised of 27 items with five sub

scales. The t-test and One Way ANOVA was used to find out the difference in attitude of respondents toward research. The

results indicated that male and female students have almost same level of attitude toward research. However, the significant

differences in attitude toward research were found among the prospective teachers enrolled in different programmes of

study.

Keywords: Attitude, Attitude toward Research, Gender, Teacher education programmes, Confirmatory factor analysis,

Reliability;

Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Gulsun A. Baskan

2012 Academic World Education & Research Center. All rights reserved.

1.IntroductionA course on research methods is essential component of teacher education curricula around the

world. The basic purpose of research methods course in teacher education programme is to enhancethe capabilities and capacities of prospective teachers and to promote interest and positive attitudetoward research. However, despite studying the research methods course during their initial orsubsequent year of teacher education programmes, majority of the graduates of teacher education

* ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE:Hafiz Muhammad, Lqbal, City and Postcode, Country Institute of Education and Research,University of the Punjab, Lahore

E-mail address:[email protected]/Tel.: +92 300 9455 296
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Hafiz Muhammad Lqbal et all. / Contemporary Educational Researches Journal (2012) 08-14

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programme neither like this course nor feel competent in this area of human endeavor. This papertries to investigate prospective teachers attitudes towards research with the view to enable teacher.educators to adopt remedial measures to improve students performance in this area of vitalimportance and enable them to become good researcher during their career as teacher.

2.Attitudes Towards ReserachA number of studies document negative attitude of students and educational practitioners toward

educational research (Isakson & Ellsworth, 1978; Levine, 2007). The negative attitudes of students notonly affect their learning (Wise, 1985: Simpson & Oliver, 1990; Greenfield, 1996) but also theirperformance in the subject they study (Koballa, Crawley & Shrigley, 1990; Elmore & Lewis, 1991,Zaidner, 1991). Studies indicate that a significant relationship exists between attitude and success(Hough & Piper, 1982; Schibeci & Riley, 1986; Koballa, 1988; German, 1988). While some other studies(Cannon & Simpson, 1985; Keeves & Morgenstern, 1992) mentioned that attitude affects achievementand achievement affects attitude. This scenario calls for a comprehensive study to be conducted tomeasure the attitude of prospective teachers toward research.

3.Effect of attitude on performanceStudies have consistently shown attitudes are impacting not only pupils participation and interest

in the subjects they engaging (Simpson & Oliver, 1990; Koballa, Crawley & Shrigley 1990; Weinburgh,1995; Greenfield, 1996) but also their performance (Linn, 1992:). Moreover, Wilson (1983), Oliver andSimpson (1988), Rana (2002),Papanastasiou and Zembylas, (2004) reported a high correlationbetween positive attitudes and achievement in science. Levin, Sabar and Libman (1991) reported apositive effect of attitude on students academic success. Similarly, while conducting research onEnglish Class Students of University Level, Hose and Prison (1998) also reported a positive correlationbetween attitude and academic success but in contrast, Oliver and Simson (1988) did not find strongrelationship between the two variables. Some other studies depict positive correlations betweensuccess and attitude (Hough & Piper, 1982; Fleming & Malone, 1983) while some more studies(Weinburgh, 1995; Keeves & Aikenhead, 1995) reported that success affects attitudes and attitudesaffect success.

This study was conducted to validate the attitude towards research (ATR) scale developed byPapanastasiou (2005), to see whether the factor structure of the original scale holds true in Pakistaniperspective. Additionally, the difference in attitude towards research of male and female students andthat of students enrolled in different teacher education programme was also investigated.

4. Method and procedure

4.1 Sample

The sample of the study consists of 277 prospective teachers, 237 females and 40 males, studyingat two Public Sector Universities in Pakistan, enrolled in 4th semester that have completed a course on

Research Methods in Education during the previous semester. These two universities were selectedfrom two metropolitan areas of Punjab, a relatively populous and prosperous province of Pakistan.

4.2 Instrument

In order to measure respondents attitude, Attitude toward Research (ATR) scale was adapted forthis study. This instrument developed by Papanastasiou (2005) and was designed on a five point likertscale. This instrument is organized into five sub-scales, that is, usefulness of research, research


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anxiety, positive attitudes, life relevancy of research to the students daily lives, and difficulty ofresearch.

4.2Procedure

The tool was administered to 277 students and the reliability and item analysis was calculated. Item

analysis was also conducted to determine the discrimination index (referred to as item to totalcorrelation) and quality of each item in the scale. Reliability of the scale was found 0.837. However,based on further analysis, three items (16, 19, 24) were rejected because their reliability was very lowand they were not discriminating between the groups. As described by Dinnel and Thompson (2000):Dunn-Rankin, (1983) and McIver and Carmines (1981), if a statement has zero or low correlation itshould not be retained. Further analysis was carried out with the remaining 29 items. The reliability ofthe 29-item scale was calculated as 0.873.

5. Results

5.1 Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The confirmatory factor analysis of the 29 items in the ATR instrument demonstrates a strong factorstructure. Majority of the items have a factor loading of at least .40 on their own scales and less than.40 on all the other scales (Aldridge & Fraser, 2000; Aldridge, Fraser, & Huang, 2000; Zandvliet & Man,2003). Items 15 and 29 have factor loadings of less than 0.40 both on their respective positiveattitude scale so these items were not retained. The final version of the ATR consists of 27 items and5 sub-scales with reliability of total scale as 0.873.

Table 1 : Factor Loadings for the Attitude toward Research Scale (ATR)

Factor Loadings

Item No.

F1 research

usefulness

F2 research

anxiety

F3 positive

attitudes

F4 relevance

to life

F5 difficulty

of research

Q 2 0.50

Q 8 0.73

Q 14 0.68

Q 17 0.62

Q 20 0.74

Q 21 0.70

Q 22 0.61

Q 27 0.63

Q1 0.48

Q6 0.43

Q7 0.60

Q18 0.61

Q25 0.58Q28 0.71

Q32 0.65

Q3 0.82

Q4 0.79

Q5 0.79

Q12 0.75

Q13 0.79


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Q30 0.62

Q23 0.73

Q26 0.79

Q31 0.54

Q9 0.51

Q10 0.50

Q11 0.57

Table 2 : Reliability Level Value for Final ATR Factors

TOSRA Factors Number of Items Mean SD Cronbach Alpha

F1 research usefulness 8 31.68 5.22 0.80

F2 research anxiety 7 18.70 4.65 0.68

F3 positive attitudes 6 20.58 5.33 0.86

F4 relevance to life 3 9.98 2.35 0.46

F5 difficulty of research 3 8.15 2.50 0.63

Table 3 : Comparison of Male and Female Students Attitude toward Research

Gender N Mean SD df t p

Male 40 88.56 13.823 273 0.327* 0.744

*p>0.05

The above table reflects that t value (0.327) with df (273) was not significant at p>0.05, It is clearthat that male respondents (M=88.56, SD=13.823) and female respondents (M=89.33, SD=13.731) did

not differ significantly in their attitude towards research.

Table 4 : One Way ANOVA on Achievement Scores of All Respondents among Levels of Attitude

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F p

Between Groups 5725.124

7 817.88 4.37 0.000Within Groups 50347.878

Total 56073.002

* p


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The F value (4.37) for all respondents was significant at p


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