Factors associated with preservice teachers' attitude towards educational measurement

It might be argued that strong knowledge and skills in educational measurement are necessary for sound classroom assessment practices. Unfortunately, many teacher-education-students hold undesirable views about educational measurement, which in turn might hinder acquisition of the knowledge and skills required for effective classroom assessment practices. Hence, there is a need to identify the factors that might contribute to an environment conducive for effective learning in educational measurement. The current study addressed this need by exploring the possible factors that might correlate in meaningful ways with attitude of teacher-education-students toward educational measurement. Specifically, the study investigated (a) differences in attitude toward educational measurement with respect to gender, class level (junior or senior), and education major and (b) relationships of educational measurement self-efficacy and math self-concept to attitude toward educational measurement. Participants were 120 Omani students enrolled in an undergraduate-level educational measurement course in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University. Results indicated (a) no statistically significant group differences on gender, (b) statistically significant group differences on class level, (c) statistically significant group differences on education major, and (d) statistically significant relationships of educational measurement self-efficacy and math self-concept to attitude toward educational measurement. Implications for the teaching and learning of educational measurement as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.