Abstract
Tanzania has been taking various initiatives to promote positive attitudes towards, and interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among students. Such initiatives call for systematic tools to be used to assess students’ attitudes towards STEM so as to inform appropriate interventions. This study investigated the extent to which S-STEM is a valid psychometric instrument for measuring secondary school students’ attitudes towards STEM in the Tanzanian context. Additionally, the study sought to establish whether S-STEM is a valid measure of students’ attitudes towards STEM across gender. Data was gathered from 16 secondary schools. A total of 1,382 Form 2 (Grade 10) students were sampled from four districts in Northern (N = 659) and North-eastern (N = 723) Tanzania. The study adopted four scales from the S-STEM survey that measures students’ attitudes toward STEM, and the 21st century skills. Structural equation modelling and measurement invariance techniques were used to assess the validity of the S-STEM survey in the sampled schools. A structural equation model with 31 out of 37 initially validated items in the S-STEM survey attained moderate to good fit, hence it was valid for measuring both girls’ and boys’ attitudes towards STEM and 21st century skills in Tanzanian secondary schools. Finally, implications for future practices and further research are discussed
Recommended Citation
KYARUZI, FLORENCE Dr; kinyota, mjege; and Rukondo, Nyanjiga
(2022)
"Validation of Student Attitudes toward STEM (S-STEM) Survey in Secondary Schools in Tanzania,"
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 10
:
No.
5
, Article 3.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v10.i5.1
Publication Date
3-10-2022
DOI
10.56279/jhss.v10.i5.1
Publisher
Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE)