Developing the wasp: Wareing attitudes toward science protocol

Abstract Affective development has long since been cited as one of the main components of scientific literacy. According to Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia, attitudes, emotions, and values that are manifested as preferred choices, appreciations, and interests comprise the affective domain. Such attitudes, emotions, and values are neither immutable nor necessarily transferable from one discipline to the next. In an effort to identify and measure scientific affect and to later assess its impact on achievement, the author set out to develop and validate an attitude instrument in the form of a Likert‐type scale. Following test construction, reliability was calculated according to several split‐half methods, using a sample of 806 students in grades 4 through 12. The result was a most satisfactory reliability range of 0.91–0.94.