Correlates of teacher education students' academic performance in an educational measurement course

A significant amount of teachers' professional time is spent in formative and summative educational assessment activities. Effective execution of these activities demands knowledge and skills in educational measurement. However, many teacher education students enrolled in the educational measurement courses express some learning difficulties, which may lead to poor academic performance. The present study attempted to explore the possible factors that may correlate in meaningful ways with the academic performance of teacher education students in an undergraduate-level educational measurement course. The study investigated (a) gender and education major differences in educational measurement academic performance and (b) relationships of attitude toward educational measurement, self-confidence in educational measurement, and math self-concept to academic performance in educational measurement. Participants were 211 Omani students enrolled in undergraduate-level educational measurement courses in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University. Four instruments were administered three weeks prior to the final course exam. Results indicated (a) statistically significant group differences on gender and education major and (b) statistically significant relationships of academic performance in educational measurement to attitude toward educational measurement, self-confidence in educational measurement, and math self-concept. Implications for measurement instruction as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.