MEASURING CIVIC ASPECTS ON CLASS LEVEL-FROM THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT LEVEL TO CLASS LEVEL USING SIX NEW SCALES

Abstract

This paper presents analyses based on class level and defines six new scales based in part on selected items from the international pool of items and, in part on items from a Danish national option consisting of supplementary items of particular interest. Items from the six scales were subject to validity tests similar to those for international CIVIC scales. It is shown how these six scales effectively contribute new information in relation to the international CIVIC scales. The aim is to construct new scales with outcomes closely related to the class level of analysis, and it is demonstrated how six-dimensional profiles erable classification of the classes into distinct categories. In fact, the use of a simple mathematical distance measure in the six-dimensional space immediately isolates two opposite and extreme profiles, which can both be straightforwardly interpreted as reasoned pictures of well known class characteristics. Other class profiles lie between these extremities as other combinations across the six scales. The profiles may be analyzed further by relating either of the two extremities to other characteristics of the class, like ratio of boys to girls and type of school