The First- and Second-Order Factor Structures of Attitudes Toward Education

At the turn of the century, John Dewey (1902) outlined two fundamental points of view on education. Although he did not name them, they are clearly what were later called Progressivism and Traditionalism. Most educators probably recoil from the dichotomy implied by these names. There is little doubt, however, that individuals are often sharply divided in their beliefs on curriculum, subject matter, method, discipline, and the like. During the half century since the publication of Dewey's essay, few attempts have been made to determine empirically the nature and structure of educational attitudes. Kerlinger (1956; 1958; 1961) and Kerlinger and Kaya (1959a; 1959b) have made such attempts, but the work was too restricted: the attitude domain was inadequately covered and the measurement instruments had too few items. Nevertheless, their principal finding was interesting: two relatively uncorrelated factors seemed to underlie educational attitudes, and these two factors closely resembled Dewey's descriptions of progressivism and traditionalism. Subsequent investigations, however, yielded somewhat different results. While two factors usually accounted for most of the common factor variance, four or more factors with substantial variance appeared. In almost all cases, however, the items originally classified as progressive (A) and traditional (B) did not load significantly on the same factors. The present study was designed to remedy the deficiencies of earlier studies and perhaps to supply more definitive answers to basic questions about educational attitudes. The study problems are expressed in the following questions: