Developing and Validating a Media Literacy Self-Evaluation Scale (MLSS) for Elementary School Students

The arrival of new media technology has the potential to radically change education. It has become important for both academics and practitioners to understand the behavioural intentions of students towards media technology. Many scales have been developed to measure the attitudes of secondary students towards the usage of media technology. However, few scales have been developed to assess media literacy in primary school students. To develop a validated scale for the media literacy of elementary school students, the Media Literacy Self-assessment Scale (MLSS) was adopted and modified in this study and then validated using a sample (N = 594) of students from Taiwan. The MLSS is a two-factor scale that measures learning with media (LWM) and media communication & ethics (MCE); these components have been proposed to constitute the multidimensional constructs. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed on a proposed nine-item model of the MLSS, and it was found the model provides a good fit. Gender and grade comparisons of the results are discussed. Educational implications and suggestions for future research are also provided. (Contains 8 tables.)