Assessing Students’ Attitudes Toward Forensic Science: Collecting an Expert Consensus

Abstract

We report the development of an affective domain instrument for the assessment of undergraduate students’ attitudes toward forensic science. Assessment of attitudes of the respondents is important to understand mediating factors in student motivation and ultimately success in the discipline. The instrument was developed using an iterative process based on responses from an expert panel of Australian forensic science educators to an array of forensic science and teaching related topics, and refined using further feedback from the panel on more specific items. The layout of the instrument, with regard to both the wording and placement of items, was developed with regular test takers (i.e., students) in mind and through the application of basic psychometric principles. The engagement of forensic science colleagues across Australia has resulted in an outcome that could provide a source of credible and relevant evidence of student attitudes toward forensic science.

Keywords:

• Affective domain
• Delphi method
• forensic science
• student attitudes

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Associate Professor Jennifer Lewis, University of South Florida, for early advice on the construction of this instrument. The collection of data from collaborators for the purposes of establishing an affective domain instrument for incoming students studying a degree in forensic science was authorized by the Human Research Ethics Committee at Curtin University (Project Number SMEC-06-12).