Q- Describe an application of the quantitative methods of educational psychology. This could be for broad institutional analysis, or it could be a description and analysis of tests and test results in the specialist area of psychometrics. What are the benefits and limitations of such work?

Likert Scale Analysis

One application of the quantitative methods in educational psychology is the Likert Scale Analysis. A Likert scale is a common tool used in data collection in online education surveys. A Likert scale is a rating scale used to assess opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. It is commonly used in the social sciences and with attitude scores because they allow you to easily operationalize and quantify/measure personality traits or perceptions. To collect data, you present participants with Likert-type questions or statements and a continuum of possible responses, usually with 5 or 7 items. Each item is given a numerical score so that the data can be analyzed quantitatively. It is an effective tool for student evaluation and obtaining student feedback.

Benefits

In addition to looking at how much respondents agree with a statement, Likert items may also focus on things such as likelihood, frequency, or importance. In such cases, survey takers would be asked to identify how likely they believe something to be true (Always true, Usually true, Sometimes true, Usually not true, Never true), how frequently they engage in a behavior or experience a particular thought (Very frequently, Frequently, Occasionally, Rarely, or Never), or how important they feel that something is to them (Very important, Important, Somewhat important, Not very important, Not important).

Because Likert items are not simply yes or no questions, researchers are able to look at the degree to which people agree or disagree with a statement. It can also be used as an effective tool for student evaluation and obtaining student feedback. Another advantage of the Likert Scale is that they are the most universal method for survey collection, therefore they are easily understood. The responses are easily quantifiable and subjective to computation of some mathematical analysis

Limitations

However, as with other forms of assessment, Likert scales can also be influenced by the need to appear socially desirable or acceptable.2 People may not be entirely honest or forthright in their answers or may even answer items in ways to make themselves appear better than they really are. This effect can be particularly pronounced when looking at behaviors that are viewed as socially unacceptable.

The Likert Scale is uni-dimensional and only gives 5-7 options of choice, and the space between each choice cannot possibly be equidistant. Therefore, it fails to measure the true attitudes of respondents. Also, it is not unlikely that peoples’ answers will be influences by previous questions or will heavily concentrate on one response side (agree/disagree). Frequently, people avoid choosing the “extremes” options on the scale, because of the negative implications involved with “extremists”, even if an extreme choice would be the most accurate.

References

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ961998.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Likert-scale-type-questions-that-measure-perceived-learning

https://ctl.wiley.com/strategies-conducting-student-feedback-surveys/

https://researchbasics.education.uconn.edu/likert_scales/

https://psyc450.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/the-likert-scale-advantages-and-disadvantages/