Date of Graduation

1992

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Reformers are urging a need for technological literacy for all students. Education has been criticized for its failure to produce technologically literate graduates. To defuse such criticism and do a better job of preparing students for the future, more students should be encouraged to take technology education courses. The purpose of this study was to provide information to educators and the public about the level of knowledge and understanding of technology possessed by senior high school students. The problem of this study was to develop, validate and establish tentative norms for an achievement test that measures the technological literacy of senior high school students. An examination of this problem involved the following procedural steps: Review of the literature of research on psychometric properties for developing test instruments, development of the technological literacy test, determination of content validity, establishment of reliability coefficient for the literacy test and establishment of tentative norms for different groups. Using a table of specification, one-hundred-and sixty test items were generated from the content and eighty test items were selected for the pilot study. Twenty-eight of these items were discarded after the item analysis. Fifty-two test items selected from the pilot were validated by a panel of experts. As a result of this study, thirty-four out of 40 test items administered on the final test had reasonable internal consistency reliability. An analysis of the results of this research and other studies found that in general, there is evidence of a very low level of knowledge and understanding of technology by the students as evaluated by the test instrument. Therefore, it is recommended that emphasis be given to enhancing instruction in the discipline of technology in the school curriculum.

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