Development and Standardization of Teachers’ Job Satisfaction Scale Using the Rasch Model.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to develop and standardize an instrument to measure job satisfaction among teachers using the Rasch model. This was against the backdrop of the use of classical test theory (CTT) by many researchers to assess the psychometric properties of measurement instruments.
Item Response Theory(IRT) moves steps further from CTT in determining the psychometric properties of an instrument by providing calibrated measures of equal interval, ensuring unidimensionality of the items of a scale, sieve out misfitting items and detect items that function differentially.
Design of the study is Instrumentation. Eight research questions were posed and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study at p < level of The sample was made up of 972 teachers from 36 schools in eight LGAs in Enugu state of Nigeria. Multi- stage sampling procedure was employed.
A 90- item draft instrument, TJSS was developed by the researcher and trial tested. The responses were subjected to factor analysis; 35 items were dropped after factor analysis and 55 items emerged. It was found out by using principal component analysis (PCA) that the 55 items of the instrument are unidimensional.
Conditional Maximum Likelihood Estimation technique of the WINSTEPS 3:80 software (Linacre, 2010) was used to analyze the data in order to answer the research questions according to the Rasch model (IRT) procedures. Independent sample t-test analysis was applied to test the hypotheses at p < 0.05 level of significance.
52 out of the 55 items fit the Rasch modeled expectation, that is, 3 items were misfitting and were dropped. Item and person separation indices showed good alignment of item hierarchy and that persons have been separated into higher and lower levels of job satisfaction.
The item threshold and person parameter estimates have accompanying standard errors of measurement (SEM) that were far below 0.5, meaning that the parameters were measured precisely.
Differential Item Functioning (DIF) effect was discovered in approximately 29% of the items, precisely 16 items, which were also discarded. With the exclusion of 19 items from the 55 items that survived factor analysis, made up of 3 misfitting ones and 16 for DIF effects, 36 items finally emerged for the TJSS.
It was recommended that IRT techniques be adopted by psychometricians so that the psychometric properties of a scale can be determined item by item and for the calibrated items to be used to measure Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in all primary and secondary school settings.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Approval Page ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables xi
List of Figures xii
Abstract xiii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 10
Purpose of the Study 12
Significance of the Study 12
Scope of the Study 14
Research Questions 14
Hypotheses 15
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual Framework 16
Conceptual Schema 17
Concept of Job Satisfaction 18
Instrument Development 20
Psychometric Properties of an instrument 25
Gender and Job satisfaction 37
Location and Job Satisfaction 39
Theoretical Framework 40
Classical Test Theory 41
Item Response Theory 45
Overview of the Rasch Model 50
Theories of Job Satisfaction 83
Empirical Studies 90
Studies on Rasch Model 90
Studies on Job satisfaction 95
Studies on IRT (1,2,3) Parameter Models 98
Summary of Literature Review 103
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD
Design of the Study 106
Area of the study 106
Population of the Study 107
Sample and Sampling Techniques 107
Instrument Construction and Development 108
Description and Features of TJSS 109
Face Validation 110
Trial Testing of the Instrument 111
Factor Analysis 111
Test of the Assumption of Unidimensionality 113
Method of Data Collection 114
Method of Data Analysis 114
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS 116
Research Question 1 116
Research Question 2 118
Research Question 3 120
Research Question 4 121
Research Question 5 126
Research Question 6 126
Research Question 7 127
Research Question 8 130
Hypothesis One 133
Hypothesis Two 134
Summary of Findings 134
CHAPTER FIVE : DISCUSSION , CONCLUSION, AND SUMMARY
Discussion of the findings 137
· Model- Data Fit 139
· Item Measure Quality 140
· Person Measure Quality 141
· Person and Item Separation 143
· Standard Error of Measurement 145
· Differential Item Functioning 146
Conclusion Reached from the Findings of the Study 146
Implications of the Study 147
Recommendations from the Study 148
Limitations of the Study 149
Suggestions for Further Studies 149
Summary of the Study 149
REFERENCES 152
APPENDICES
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
There are several reasons why people work, such as need for income, activity, self-worth, respect from others and social contact.
According to Okeke (1996), work involves such varied personal needs as high self-esteem, the extension of congenial associates, the extension of one’s personal and geographical freedom and the establishment of comfortable physiological identity.
Thus, work provides physiological, social and economic products (or values) that are fundamental for participation in a society. For example, work determines the status of an individual within a group, the life style of the individual and the way of life of a family or even a family’s standard of living.
Every individual in modern society is expected to do some work and in return for productive services rendered, the workers are paid some wages/salaries that enables them satisfy physiological and economic needs – food, clothing, shelter.
Also, part of the social needs of people is provided in the work place where they meet, converse and share experiences with friends and colleagues. When the social, physiological and economic needs of the workers are adequately provided, they derive job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction has been defined from many perspectives. As Yalami (1993) observed, some people view job satisfaction in the perspective of mental/physical health while others see it as being a desirable positive feeling that depends on the fulfillment of an individual’s needs on the job.
Ajayi (1993) posited that job satisfaction is a personal feeling of contentment or a compound of various attitudes, mental and emotional, which a worker has and extends to his work situation.
REFERENCES
Abd-El-Fattah, S.M. (2007). Is the Aggression Questionnaire bias free? A Rasch analysis. International Education Journal, 8 (2), 237-248.
Abonyi, S.O. (2005). Instrumentation in Educational Research. In D.N. Eze (Ed). What to Write and How to Write. 38-65. Enugu: Pearls and Gold.
Adams, S. (1963), Toward an Understanding of Inequity. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 422-436.
Adelabu, M.A. (2005). Teacher Motivation and Incentives in Nigeria. Educational Quality Assurance: Ekiti State SPEB Initiative. 17-23. Ibadan: Gabesther Educational Publishing co.
Adedoyin, O.O. (2010). Using IRT Approach to Detect Gender Biased Items in Public Examinations: A case study from the Botswana Junior Certificate Examination in Mathematics. Educational Research and Reviews 5 (7), 385-399.
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