Abstract:
Non existence of valid instrument for assessing effective behaviours in our schools has been seen as a serious handicap in teaching and learning. Most teachers do not seem to possess enough competence in instrument development and validation. This therefore means that our teachers will rely on instruments that have been developed and validated by experts. This study therefore, sought to develop and validate an economics interest inventory, which will be used for an accurate assessment of students' interest in geography. The study was guided by the following research questions: 1. What is the face validity of the items in the economics interest inventory EII? 2. How valid are the items of the economics interest inventory in terms of the factors loading? 3. What is the reliability coefficient of the economics interest inventory EII? 4. To what extent is the interest of the students related to gender? 5. What influence has school type on the students' interest in economics? Further, the study tested the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance: 1'There is no significant difference between the interest of students in female schools and those in male schools. 2. There is no significant difference between the interest of the students of the same sex in single schools with those in mixed schools. An instrument consisting of 50 items were constructed and used for trial testing on a sample of 100 students. The factor analysis of this yielded five factors. This was administered to 400 students who were purposefully sampled from schools in Aguata Educational zone. The students were stratified along sex and gender. The result were analysed using means, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA and the result from the study indicated that: 1. The EII has a high validity judging from the face and construct validity. 2. The EII has a reliability coefficient of 0.82%. 3. Sex has a positive effect on students' interest in economics. 4. School type has no significant influence on students' interest in economics.
