In the present research study, researcher had developed and standardized Scientific Interest Inventory (SII) for class VII students by following all the procedure of Standardization. No appropriate tool was found to assess the Interest in Science for class VII students. Therefore, the researcher felt the need to construct and standardize a tool to assess interest in Science. Scientific Interest Inventory was constructed by the researcher to assess the scientific interest of class VII students. The language of the test is English. The test was standardized on a sample of 335 students. The final version of test consists of thirty five items.
Scientific Interest operationally defined by researcher as liking shown by students towards the events, actions, profession, trends and the concepts occurring in Science subject. Item analyses was done, Discrimination index was calculated. Content and Construct validity, was established. Test –retest method was employed for establishing reliability
Development and Standardization Scientific Interest Inventory
Illustrations are not included in the reading sample
Key words- Reliability, Content validity, Construct Validity item analyses, Discrimination index,
The assessment of scientific interest has long been a critical area of inquiry in educational psychology and educational research. However, despite the emergent emphasis on Science education and careers, there remains a lack of standardized tools that reliably measure scientific interest of middle school students.
Scientific Interest Inventory (SII) is developed to address this gap by offering a structured, psychometrically sound instrument designed to evaluate middle school students’ inclination toward Science stream . The development and standardization process involved c item writing, expert validation, and pilot testing to ensure that the inventory captures both cognitive and affective dimensions of scientific interest. This paper presents the systematic procedure of development and standardization of the SII, By providing a reliable measure of scientific interest, the inventory aims to support educators, counselors and researchers Ultimately, the SII helps to reduce the gap between educational assessment and the growing demand for scientific literacy in the modern world.
Rational for the Development and Standardization Interest Inventory
After reviewing available interest test only two test assessing Interest in Science were found. One was in Marathi language and designed specifically for fifteen-year-old students, thereby limiting its applicability to younger learners and non-Marathi speaking populations. The other, developed and standardized by L.N. Dubey and Dr. Archana Dubey, was intended to assess the Interest in Science of secondary school students. . However, no appropriate tool was found to assess the Interest in Science for class VII students. Therefore, the researcher felt the need to construct and standardize a tool to assess interest in Science.
Scientific Interest Inventory was constructed by the researcher to assess the scientific interest of class VII students. The language of the test is English. The test has undergone the process of standardization. The test was standardized on a sample of 335 students. The test consists of thirty five items.
Definition of Interest
According to Crow and Crow (1973) . Interest may refer to the motivating force that impels us to attend a person, a thing or an activity or may be the effective experience that has been simulated by the activity itself. In other words, interest can be the cause of an activity and the result of participation in that activity.
According to Dictionary of Psychology (2004) Interest refer in which the subject expresses like or dislikes for activities and attitudes, especially as associated with different types of works. Here, Preference given to particular activity when options are available.
Hidi & Ren ninger (2006) Defined interest as a psychological state characterized by increased attention, concentration, and affect, as well as a "relatively enduring predisposition to re-engage with particular content"
Key Aspects of Interest:
Affective Component: Feelings of pleasure and enjoyment.
Cognitive Component: Focused attention and mental engagement.
Motivational Component: Directs behavior towards specific objects or activities
Definition of Scientific Interest
According to American Psychological Association (2015) “Scientific Interest refers to a person’s attraction, curiosity, and enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.”
According to National Science Foundation (2014) Scientific interest is a person’s motivation to engage in science-related activities, such as learning about scientific concepts, conducting experiments, and solving problems.”
According to Krapp (2002), “Scientific interest is a person’s willingness to engage in science related activities, such as reading about science, participating in science experiments, and
Components of Scientific Interest Inventory
To identify the dimensions of scientific interest, related literature, including the Encyclopedia of Education and other educational resources, were reviewed. From this review, several characteristics of a person with scientific interest were identified, such as preference for science content, career aspiration in science, use of leisure time, self motivation, discipline, collaboration and teamwork, and communication skills.
- Context: This refers to the specific situations or environments where scientific learning and exploration occur.
- Content: This involves the particular scientific ideas, concepts, and knowledge that students are engaged with.
- Activity: This dimension focuses on the actions and tasks that students undertake while learning science, such as experimenting, observing or problem – solving.
- Observation Skills-Ability to notice details in experiments, natural phenomena, and classroom demonstrations.
- Interest in conducting experiments, handling lab equipment, and testing ideas. Problem-Solving & Inquiry
- Willingness to ask questions, investigates causes, and finds logical solutions.
- Interest in learning scientific principles (e.g., electricity, acids & bases, life processes).
- Application of Science in daily life
- Curiosity about how science explains everyday phenomena, like cooking, weather, gadgets
- Environmental Awareness
Operational Definition of Scientific Interest
Scientific interest refers to the liking shown by students towards the events, actions, profession, trends and the concepts occurring in Science subject. By studying the above definitions, the researcher identified the components of scientific interest which are as follows
Rationale for using Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
The choice of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) over a five-point Likert scale was made because MCQs are more appropriate for seventh-grade students. It can be challenging for these students to grasp the distinctions between ‘strongly agree,’ ‘agree,’ ‘strongly disagree,’ and ‘disagree.’ MCQs provide clear alternatives that minimize confusion and make answering easier. Unlike Likert scales, which rely on subjective interpretations of opinions, multiple-choice questions allow for objective scoring, leading to more effective item analysis. Additionally, this format aligns with examination practices, and students are habituated to it. Another significant reason for selecting MCQs is that they are more effective in identifying specific dimensions of scientific interest, as they offer well-defined options that represent students’ preferences and inclinations. Therefore, employing multiple-choice questions guarantees that the instrument stays suitable for the age group, dependable, and efficient in assessing the scientific interest of class VII students.
Preliminary draft Scientific Interest Inventory (SII)
On the basis of operational definition of scientific interest, components of scientific interest, and characteristics of students’ who have Interest in Science, the preliminary draft of scientific interest Inventory SII was written by the researcher. Based on these characteristics, the dimensions of scientific interest were identified, and the first draft of the tool was prepared to assess the scientific interest of school students. Each item was provided with five alternatives. Students were instructed to read each item carefully and select one alternative by circling it.
The first draft was then submitted to five experts from the fields of education and science. They scrutinized the tool in terms of content validity, language, and formatting. As a result, the structure of twenty statements was modified. The preliminary draft of the tool initially consisted of 62 items, but 03 items were removed due to repetition. Finally, 59 items of the inventory were retained and sent for expert comments. While writing items for SII care was taken that items should match the age and mental levels of the students.
Preliminary Try Out
The preliminary tryout was conducted in two stages. Initially, it was administered to a sample of eight students (four boys and four girls) from Excellence Bal Vinay Mandir. The primary objective was to identify the difficulties of the students encountered in understanding the items. Whenever a student highlighted a challenging word or phrase, the researcher immediately evaluated the item's clarity and provided appropriate alternatives. Based on the feedback from this individual tryout, necessary modifications were integrated into the final test items.
Final try-out and Item Analysis
After the initial tryout, for the purpose of item analysis the modified Scientific Interest Inventory was administered on 335 students of four CBSE-affiliated schools of Indore namely St. Arnold’s School, Kendriya Vidyalaya - Central School No. 1, Prestige Public School, and Marthoma Higher Secondary School . The detail of sample is given in table 4.3.
The primary objective of this stage is to examine the each items based on their discrimination power and validity. To ensure a smooth process, rapport was established with the students. Students were also informed about the objective of administering the tool. They were also assured that their responses would be kept confidential and used only for research purpose. Each student was given a copy of the tool and was asked to read the instructions thoroughly before beginning. They were told that there was no time limit for responding. The tool was collected immediately upon completion. Average time taken by the student was approximately 20 minutes. A standardized scoring scheme was developed, where a score of 1 was assigned for a correct answer and 0 for an incorrect one. Accordingly, a high total score reflects a high level of scientific interest, while a low score indicates a lower level of interest. The data gathered from this tryout was subsequently utilized for item analysis.
Item Analysis
The following procedure was followed for the item analysis of the Scientific Interest Inventory. (SII) The primary objective of this analysis was to select the most effective items from the preliminary draft. The details are as follows:
a) Ranking of Test Papers . All test papers were arranged in descending order based on their total scores.
b) Identification of Groups. The upper 27% and lower 27% groups were identified for analysis, while the middle 46% of the cases were excluded from the procedure.
c) Data Tabulation: For each item, the number of students from both the upper and lower groups who provided relevant (correct) responses was recorded.
d) Calculation of Discrimination Index: The Discrimination Index ($D$) was calculated to determine the ability of each item to distinguish between high- and low-scoring students.
e) Selection Criteria: Items with a discrimination index below 0.3 were removed. Only items with a discrimination index above 0.3 were retained for the final draft.
f) Final Selection: As shown in Table 4.2, item numbers 4, 7, 9, 11, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23, 24, 34, 43, 45, 46, and 47 were rejected based on their discrimination indices. Consequently, out of the initial 50 items, 35 items were retained.The details regarding each item of the SII is given in table 1.1
Table 1.5
Item–wise Discrimination Index, Pearson Correlation, and Significance Score
Illustrations are not included in the reading sample
Item Analysis – Discrimination Index and Construct Validity of the Interest Inventory.
To ensure the quality and validity of the developed Interest Inventory, an item analysis was conducted on the initial 50 items. Two statistical criteria were used to evaluate each item a) the Discrimination Index and the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation . To ensure that the items in the Scientific Interest Inventory truly measure the construct they intended to measure, Item-Total Correlation was calculated using the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation coefficient (r) using SPSS. The validity of each item was established by correlating the score of each individual item with the total score of the inventory. This ensures that every item is consistent with the overall direction of the test. A high correlation coefficient indicates that the item is effectively contributing to the assessment of student's interest in science.
Table 1.2
Summary of Rejected and Accepted Items for the Final Draft of the SII
Illustrations are not included in the reading sample
The final version of Scientific Interest Inventory (SII) consists of 35 highly valid and discriminating items.
Reliability and Validity of (SII)
Reliability of Interest Inventory was established by employing Test-Retest method of Reliability. As sample, three hundred and thirty five students of four respective schools those who were already pre-tested during Initial tryout of Interest Inventory were taken. The researcher re-administered the same test namely Interest Inventory (SII) to the sample after duration of fifteen days. The scoring was done. The correlation coefficient was calculated between the scores of the two tests with the help of Pearson’s Product moment Correlation. The reliability coefficient was found to be 0. 746, which is significant at 0.01 levels.
The statistical analysis, performed using SPSS, yielded a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.91 is significant at 0.01 level of significance . Therefore, the scientific Interest Inventory (SII) is considered to be reliable for class VII students.
The content validity of the Scientific Interest inventory was established by having a discussion with the experts from the field of education and science stream. The Construct validity of each item was also established by correlating the score of each individual item with the total score of the inventory. A high correlation coefficient indicates that the item is effectively contributing to the measurement of the student's interest in science. Thus developed Scientific Interest Inventory is found to be valid and reliable.
References
American Psychological Association. (2015). APA dictionary of psychology (2nd ed.).
Crow, L. D., & Crow, A. (1973). Educational psychology. Eurasia Publishing House.
Dubey, N., & Dube, A. (2002). Manual for Science Interest Test (SIT). National Psychological Corporation.
Hidi, S., & Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 111–127. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_4
Krapp, A. (2002). Structural and dynamic aspects of interests’ development: Theoretical considerations from an ontogenetic perspective. Learning and Instruction, 12(4), 383–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4752(01)00028-4
National Science Foundation. (2014). Investing in science, engineering, and education for the nation's future: Strategic plan for 2014-2018.https://www.nsf. gov/about/performance/ strategic_plan.jsp
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- Kiran Dammani (Autor:in), Palak Berchha (Autor:in), 2026, Development and Standardization Scientific Interest Inventory, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1715298
