Development of an Instrument to Measure Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Curriculum Use and Planning

Abstract

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to construct an instrument that discriminated between teachers with positive and negative attitudes toward curriculum use and planning; and (2) to determine if teachers in an in-service situation with curriculum planning experience have more positive attitudes toward curriculum use and planning than teachers in service without such experience. The instrument was validated empirically using eighty-three teachers and subsequently administered to 274 teachers to test the independent variables of partici pation, grade level, and years of teaching experience. Teachers with participation experience scored higher on the instrument than those without such experience, but grade level and years of experience interacted with the partici pation factor. THE PRIMARY preoccupation of educators has been planning for and observing changes in pupils' behaviors and attitudes. Not without importance, however, are the considerations re garding teachers' behaviors and attitudes; what they are and how they can change. This study concerned the development and subsequent ad ministration of an instrument designed to meas ure one dimension of teachers' attitudes. It was hoped that an attitude toward curriculum use and planning could be identified, measured, and used ! as an empirically based factor in theoretical state ments about curriculum engineering. j The problem was to test those generalizations ? in the curriculum literature that suggest teachers benefit from participating in curriculum plan- | ning (3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13). The study was an j empirical test of the viability of a curriculum system model described by Macdonald (2) and Beauchamp (1). Although causality between teacher participation in curriculum planning and increase in positiveness of attitudes toward cur riculum use and planning cannot be logically inferred from the study, the study has con tributed empirical evidence that tests the rela tionship between participation and attitudes. Procedure