An instrument to determine the technological liter

Authors: Melanie B Luckay Brandon I CollierReed

Publish Date: 2014/01/23

Volume: 24, Issue: 3, Pages: 261-273

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Abstract

In this article an instrument for assessing upper secondary school students’ levels of technological literacy is presented The items making up the instrument emerged from a previous study that employed a phenomenographic research approach to explore students’ conceptions of technology in terms of their understanding of the nature of technology and their interaction with technological artefacts The instrument was validated through administration to 1245 students on completion of their 12 years of formal schooling A factor analysis was conducted on the data and Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients determined The results show that a fivedimension factor structure namely artefact process direction/instruction tinkering and engagement strongly supported the dimensions as developed during the original phenomenographic study The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of each dimension was satisfactory Based on these findings the instrument has been shown to be valid and reliable and can be used with confidenceThe material is based upon the work supported by the University Research Committee Accredited Research Group Fellowship from the University of Cape Town Any opinion findings conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of University

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