CHILDRENS TEST ANXIETY SCALE (CTAS)

Test Attitude Survey Circle the answers that best describe or tell about you. 1. I am a boy girl 2. Circle your class6K 3. I amMalay Other 6H Indian 6M Chinese

SAMPLE Please read the following statement and decide if it describes the way you are while you are taking tests. If the statement is almost never or never like you, you should circle 1. If the statement describes the way you are most of the time, circle 3. If the statement is almost always or always like you, circle 4.
ALMOST NEVER SOME OF THE TIME MOST OF THE TIME ALMOST ALWAYS

While I am taking tests I think about doing other things.

The rest of the items describe how some students may think, feel, or act while they are taking tests. Please read each statement carefully and decide if the statement describes how you think, feel, or act during a test. Then circle the answer that best describes the way you are while taking a test. If you are not sure which answer to circle, read the statement again before circling your answer. Remember that there are no right or wrong answers on this survey. Please give truthful answers.

ALMOST NEVER

SOME OF THE TIME

MOST OF THE TIME

ALMOST ALWAYS

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

While I am taking tests I wonder if I will pass. My heart beats fast. I look around the room. I feel nervous. I think I am going to get a bad grade.

1 1 1 1 1
ALMOST NEVER

2 2 2 2 2
SOME OF THE TIME

3 3 3 3 3
MOST OF THE TIME

4 4 4 4 4
ALMOST ALWAYS

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

While I am taking tests It is hard for me to remember the answers. I play with my pencil. My face feels hot. I worry about failing. My belly feels funny.

1 1 1 1 1
ALMOST NEVER

2 2 2 2 2
SOME OF THE TIME

3 3 3 3 3
MOST OF THE TIME

4 4 4 4 4
ALMOST ALWAYS

11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

While I am taking tests I worry about doing something wrong. I check the time. I think about what my grade will be. I find it hard to sit still. I wonder if my answers are right.

1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4

ALMOST NEVER

SOME OF THE TIME

MOST OF THE TIME

ALMOST ALWAYS

16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

While I am taking tests I think that I should have studied more. My head hurts. I look at other people. I think most of my answers are wrong. I feel warm.

1 1 1 1 1
ALMOST NEVER

2 2 2 2 2
SOME OF THE TIME

3 3 3 3 3
MOST OF THE TIME

4 4 4 4 4
ALMOST ALWAYS

21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

While I am taking tests I worry about how hard the test is. I try to finish up fast. My hand shakes. I think about what will happen if I fail. I have to go to the bathroom.

1 1 1 1 1
ALMOST NEVER

2 2 2 2 2
SOME OF THE TIME

3 3 3 3 3
MOST OF THE TIME

4 4 4 4 4
ALMOST ALWAYS

26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

While I am taking tests I tap my feet. I think about how poorly I am doing. I feel scared. I worry about what my parents will say. I stare.

1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4

Thank you for your help!

Childrens Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) Standardized testing, which is any uniform system of gathering information that is developed, administered, and scored under controlled conditions (Cizek & Burg, 2006), has become increasingly more common for public school children of today in the United States. In order to hold schools accountable for their students achievement, the federal legislation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandates that a minimum of 95% of all children in each grade level will be tested each year in grades 3-8 and at least once during the grades of 10-12, and test scores for all students must improve every year so that no child is performing below grade level by 2013 (Wren & Benson, 2004). This increase in standardized testing will most likely lead to higher test anxiety in students. Once students have become anxious regarding testing, the achievement scores of the students might be negatively influenced, which in turn will impact the tests validity. Since such high stakes are being placed on these test scores, it is important to determine if test anxiety does negatively impact the students required to take these standardized achievement tests.

In response to these concerns, Wren and Benson (2004) directly address the importance of having a recent, valid, and reliable self-report instrument in order to measure the test anxiety construct in children from varying ethnicities. The Childrens Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) was developed and validated for use in measuring the current construct of test anxiety for students in grades 3 through 6, which is equivalent to children in the 8-12 age range. Wren and Benson (2004) focused on this age group since a meta-analysis of test anxiety articles by Hembree (1988) found that test anxiety noticeably increased in grades 3-5 and began to affect students performance from approximately the fourth grade on, indicating a conditioned response leading to fear of evaluative situations (Johnson, 2007). Also, most self-report measures for children tended to be written at the third grade reading level to allow students to complete the instrument with minimal assistance and most standardized testing in the United States starts in third grade (Wren & Benson, 2004).

The Childrens Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) is based on three interrelated components found in recent literature regarding childrens test anxiety manifestation: thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours. The CTAS is a 30 item self-report measure that has been validated for use with children in third through sixth grade that asks questions related to the components of thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours with four response choices in a Likert scale format.

The first phase in the development of the CTAS required defining the theoretical domains of childrens test anxiety. It had been previously determined that test anxiety is situation specific and manifests during formal evaluative situations when an unpleasant emotional state is experienced. The theoretical definition of test anxiety in relation to the CTAS consists of the three interrelated components of thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours (Wren & Benson, 2004).

In the second phase of development, an open-ended questionnaire was administered as an optional writing assignment to 218 elementary school students in order to find words and language used by children referring to test anxiety (Wren & Benson, 2004). After collecting the responses, the researchers reviewed them, organized a preliminary try-out of items to place on the instrument, and performed a final edit of the items. The number of items initially consisted of 107 written questions that reflected the three dimensions of test anxiety (thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours). All items were also determined to be best written in the first person. The chosen response format determined for the CTAS was a Likert scale, with four response options of 1= almost never, 2= some of the time, 3= most of the time, and 4= almost always.

An eight member public school teacher panel, all of whom had at least 5 years of teaching experience, judged the questions; two teachers were used at each grade of 3 , 4 , 5 , and 6 . A reading specialist also analysed the reading level of all items and discarded the words and phrases students would likely not be able to comprehend. The researchers then used the information from both the teachers panel and the reading specialist in order to determine which items should stay, be revised, or be thrown out. The final pool of questions was then dropped to a number of 50 which contained 23 items related to thoughts, 14 items related to autonomic reactions, and 13 items related to off-task behaviours (Wren & Benson, 2004).
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The third phase of developing the CTAS was the quantitative evaluation phase which had 3 purposes. The researchers obtained data to estimate the internal consistency of the new scale and subscales, obtained a preliminary indication of the plausibility of the three-factor structure proposed for childrens test anxiety and how well the questions worked with the theoretical domain, and assessed the relationship among the factors (Wren & Benson, 2004). The 50 item scale was tested on a sample of 230 3
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to 6 graders during normal school hours.

The correlations for each item ranged from 0.22 to 0.71 within their subscales of gender, race, and grade level. All questions with less than a 0.20 correlation with their subscale were discarded, which left 9 items related to autonomic reactions subscale, 8 items on the off-task behaviours subscale, and 13 items on the thoughts subscale. The reliability of the 30-item CTAS was 0.92, with the subscales ranging from 0.78 to 0.89 (Wren & Benson, 2004). The fourth phase was validating the CTAS, which was done through giving the 30-item scale to different samples of students in the 3 to 6 grades.
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The scoring of the CTAS can be obtained by summing the Likert scale responses of each student for each of the 30 total items as well as for each subscale of thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours. The four Likert scale response options are 1-almost never, 2some of the time, 3-most of the time, and 4-almost always. The lowest total generalized test anxiety score possible would be 30, a low to mid-range score would range from 31-60, a mid to high-range score would range from 61-90, and the highest possible score would be 120. In order to examine levels of generalized test anxiety on each of the three subscales, scores can be added for thoughts, with scores ranging between 13-52, autonomic reactions, with scores ranging between 8-32, and off-task behaviours, with scores ranging between 9-36. Each students subscale score will be divided by the number of questions possible for each subscale to get a

mean response and the total score will be divided by 30 in order to find a mean score of generalized test anxiety for each student. The scores will range from a 1.0-4.0, i.e., a student with a 2.83 mean total CTAS score, would evidence general test anxiety responses between some of the time and most of the time.

Instrumentation The Childrens Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS; see Appendix B) was developed and validated for use in measuring test anxiety for students in grades 3 through 6, which is equivalent to children in the 8-12 age range. The CTAS measures generalized test anxiety and is based on three interrelated components found in recent literature regarding childrens test anxiety manifestation: thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours. It is a 30 item self-report measure that asks each student questions relating to their thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours during testing situations with four response options in a Likert scale format.

The scoring of the CTAS can be obtained by summing the Likert scale responses of each student for each of the 30 total items as well as for each subscale of thoughts, autonomic reactions, and off-task behaviours. The four Likert scale response options are 1-almost never, 2some of the time, 3-most of the time, and 4-almost always. The lowest total generalized test anxiety score possible would be 30, a low to mid-range score would range from 31-60, a mid to high-range score would range from 61-90, and the highest possible score would be 120. In order to examine levels of generalized test anxiety on each of the three subscales, scores can be added for thoughts, with scores ranging between 13-52, autonomic reactions, with scores ranging between 8-32, and off-task behaviours, with scores ranging between 9-36. Each students subscale score will be divided by the number of questions possible for each subscale to get a mean response and the total score will be divided by 30 in order to find a mean score of generalized test anxiety for each student. The scores will range from a 1.0-4.0, i.e., a student with a 2.83 mean total CTAS score, would evidence general test anxiety responses between some of the time and most of the time.

RESEARCH TOPIC: ELEMENTARY STUDENTS TEST ANXIETY IN RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ASSESSMENT EXAMINATION (UPSR) Research Questions The questions that are addressed in this study are: 1) Did students exhibit general test anxiety prior to the UPSR, as evidenced by the Childrens Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS)? 2) Did elementary students levels of test anxiety change after taking the UPSR? 3) Were there differences in test anxiety by gender? 4) Were there differences in test anxiety by race?

Hypotheses The null hypotheses that are examined in this study are: H1: Elementary students will exhibit high levels of general test anxiety. H2: Elementary students will not exhibit high levels of test anxiety after taking the UPSR. H3: There will be no differences in anxiety by race, or gender. H4: There will be no correlation between levels of generalized test anxiety and UPSR.

RESEARCH DESIGN EXPERIMENTAL

CONDUCTING PILOT TEST ON A GROUP WITH THE SAME CHARACTERISTIC AND FEATURES AS THE RESEARCH SAMPLE

SELECTING SAMPLE FROM POPULATION (YEAR 6, BOYS AND GIRLS SCHOOL) STUDENT DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUP CONTROL AND TREATMENT GROUP

CONDUCTING PRE-TEST OF CTAS ON SAMPLE

TREATMENT CONDUCTED FOR THE TREATMENT GROUP

CONDUCTING POST-TEST OF CTAS ON SAMPLE AFTER 4 WEEKS TREATMENT

ANALYSED DATA OF PRE AND POST TEST