The research instruments used for data collection for this research work include:
(i) Pupil Rating Scale (Revised) (ii) Westside Test Anxiety Scale
(iii) Stanford Achievement Test Series Tenth Edition.
3.5.1 Pupil Rating Scale
The Pupil Rating Scale is a screening instrument developed by Mykleburst in 1971 and revised in 1981. It is a standardised, flexible instrument that is easily adaptable to any cultural background without any alteration. It has been proved to be very accurate in identifying children who have high risks of failing in school even in Nigeria, because the scale does not have discriminatory features.
Ikujuni (1995) and Kanu (2004) adapted this scale in screening children for learning disabilities and found it very useful and suitable.
The scale consists of five major behavioural characteristics which are:
Auditory comprehension
Spoken language
Orientation
Motor coordination
Personal social behaviour
These behavioural characteristics are grouped under two categories, verbal and non-verbal, auditory comprehension and spoken languages were classified as verbal while orientation, motor coordination and personal social behaviour are classified as non-verbal. On the whole, the scale contains 24 items. Each item was assessed on a five point scale with an average of three. Rating which fell below the average, received either one or two scores while ratings above average received four or five scores. A score below the average result (72) would suggest the presence of learning disabilities in a child.
Ikujuni (1995) revalidated the research instrument on Nigerian population and recorded high construct validity and a test-re-test reliability coefficient of 0.86. Also,
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Kanu (2004) conducted a pilot study in order to further ascertain its suitability for screening learning disabilities in children. There was a significant inter-item correlation with a coefficient alpha of 0.91. Also, a Spearman Brown split half showed reliability coefficient of 0.74.
3.5.2 Westside Test Anxiety Scale
The Westside Test Anxiety Scale developed by Driscoll (2004), is a brief ten item instrument designed to identify students with anxiety impairments who could benefit from an anxiety reduction. The scale items cover self-assessed anxiety impairment and cognitions which can impair performance.
The Westside Scale combines six items assessing impairment and four items on worry and dread. The scale uses a five point Likert Scale ranging from extremely always true, to not at all or never true. Participants are to tick their answers. A typical item is “The closer I am to a major examination, the harder it is for me to concentrate on the material”. The scores of the participants are added and divided by ten and then interpreted thus:
1.0 – 1.9 - Comfortable low test anxiety 2.0 – 2.5 - Normal or average test anxiety 2.5 – 2.9 - High normal test anxiety 3.0 – 3.4 Moderate high test anxiety 3.5 – 3.9 High test anxiety
4.0 – 5.0 Extremely high test anxiety
Westside Scale obtain a correlation coefficient of r = .44 in two separate populations between changes on Westside Scale and changes in test performance (Driscoll, 2007).
3.5.3 Stanford Achievement Test Series (Tenth Edition)
Stanford Achievement Test Series (Tenth Edition) were developed by Pearson Assessment and Information (2008) to measure cognitive abilities that relates to a student‟s ability to learn and succeed in school. It is used to measure academic knowledge of elementary and secondary school students. The test is available in 13 levels that roughly correspond to the year in school. For the purpose of this study, Stanford Achievement Test for intermediate 2 (5th Grade) which is considered
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appropriate for the age grade of the participants is used. The Reading and Mathematics subsets of the test were used
Reading and Comprehension
Stanford Achievement test (Reading) is a 25-item multiple choice questions designed to measure the spectrum of important reading components, from recognising sounds to word identification, from vocabulary skills to comprehension. The reading subtest reflects and supports a balanced, developmental curriculum and sound instructional practices. The subtest measure phonemic awareness, decoding, phonics, vocabulary and comprehension.
To further ascertain the reading ability of the participants, each of them was asked to read the first comprehension passage in the test. This is done with the complementary effort of the research assistants.
Writing
To test the writing ability of the participants, a two-paragraph comprehension passage was dictated to the participants in order to measure the legibility of their handwriting, the speed and accuracy as well as spelling.
Mathematics
Stanford 10 Mathematics subset is a ten-item multiple choice test which measures number sense and operation/patterns, relationships and algebra, geometry and measurement, and data, statistics and probability. Questions assessed processed in communication and representation, estimation, mathematical connections and reasoning and problem solving.
To test the cultural adaptability of the instrument to Nigerian situation, a pilot test was carried out among 25 students of Maryland Catholic Grammar School, Ogbomoso. The reliability coefficient was determined using Cronbach alpha and it read r =0.72. However, a further analysis of each subset showed a reliability coefficient of r=0.73 for Reading and comprehension subset, while r= 0.68 was recorded for mathematics subset. These suggest that the instrument is reliable and suitable for use among Nigerian students.
The scale is scored thus:
50% and above --- High Academic Achievement
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30% - 49% --- Average Academic Achievement 29% and below --- low Academic Achievement
The implication is that a score below 30% in a test indicates a suspect of disability in that specific area (either in reading, writing or mathematics).