Measuring users' affective responses to educational information: Development and validation of the Attitude Toward Information Scale (ATIS)

Abstract

This paper gives an account of the development and try-out of the Attitude Toward Information Scale (ATIS), a measuring tool based on the Krathwohl hierarchical taxonomy and designed to gauge educational users' affective response toward information. As part of a larger information need and use study, the 15-item ATIS scale was administered to a random sample (n = 1078) of public school educators in the province of British Columbia, Canada stratified into nine education work roles. The data confirmed a three-stage hierarchy for the ATIS and revealed that attitude toward information is a powerful psychological construct which differentiated the personal and professional characteristics of educators performing various work roles and related significantly to several facets in the information- seeking behaviour of teachers, consultants and administrators pursuing those work roles. In conclusion, it is recommended that the affective dimension of the user be given serious consideration in developing a conceptual framework for information delivery systems and improvement of the information-seeking behaviours of educators in the face of anticipated continued change in information technology and system development. © 1983.