The development of an instrument for measuring attitudes of Jamaican tenth graders to business education

Abstract

This study sought to: (a) develop an instrument that could reliably measure attitudes of tenth grade boys and girls in New Secondary, technical, comprehensive, and traditional high schools to business education; (b) explore the relationship between attitudes, occupational choice, and occupational ratings; and (c) explore the relationship between attitudes, school type, and gender. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first, a 50-item scale was piloted on 120 tenth graders. Factor analysis of these data produced two subscales: 1) the "Projection of Vocational Interest" factor (18 items), and 2) the "Value Orientation" factor (9 items). Reliabilities were established for each subscale, as well as the entire 27-item scale, which verified their appropriateness for use in the second phase. It was found that: 1) there were variations in the intensity of attitudes to business education among the groups tested, with that of boys being less favourable than girls. Overall, however, there was no significant difference in attitudes between the sexes; and 2) overall, New Secondary Ss displayed the most favourable attitude and High School Ss the least favourable. Differences among the four school types were, however, not significant