Analyzing Data Measured By Individual Likert-Type Items

Using individual (not summated) Likert-type items (questions) as measurement tools is common in agricultural education research. The Journal of Agricultural Education published 188 research articles in Volumes 27 through 32. Responses to individual Likert-type items on measurement instruments were analyzed in 95, or more than half, of these articles. After reviewing the articles analyzing individual Likert-type items, 5 1 (54%) reported only descriptive statistics (e.g., means, standard deviations, frequencies/percentages by category). Paired Likert-type items or sets of items were compared using nonparametric statistical techniques (e.g., chi-square homogeneity tests, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon U tests, Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance tests) in 12 (13%) of the articles. Means for paired Likert-type items were compared using parametric statistical procedures (e.g. t-tests or analysis of variance F-tests) in 32 (34%) of the articles.