الملخص الإنجليزي
The present study aimed to development a scale that measures vocational interests among tenth graders in Oman. The initial form of the scale included 114 positive items distributed over 11 factors. The respondents respond to each item on a 3-point scale (Highly interested; Moderately interested, and Not interested) that is scored 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The facial validity was examined using a panel of 16 judges which recommended deleting 17 items and modifying 13 others. Thus, the pre-final version of the scale consisted of 97 items distributed over 11 factors. The scale was administered to 500 tenth graders enrolled in the academic year of 2012/2013 in Muscat, Aldakhiliyah, and Alsharqiyah North region.
The construct validity of the scale was examined using confirmatory factor analysis wherein a number of statistics indicated the fit of the confirmatory factor analysis model to the data of the present study after deleting several items with low loadings. The final form of the scale consisted of 86 items distrusted over 11 factors. The convergent validity was examined using Pearson's correlation between the scale of the present study (as being prepared by the researcher) and the Omani version of the Holland Vocational Interests Scale (Al-Brashdi, 2009) for a sub-sample of 86 students. All correlation coefficients were found to be statistically significant except for the correlation coefficient between the Reality factor on Holland's scale and the Social factor on the scale of the present study. The correlations coefficients ranged from 0.86 to 0.25. The correlation for the total scores of the two scales was 0.85.
The reliability of the scale was examined using the internal consistency coefficient using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient that ranged from 0.64 to 0.85 and was 0.94 for the whole scale. The test-retest reliability coefficient over a period of 2 weeks for the data of 50 students was 0.80
The means differences analyses using independent samples t-Test revealed significant differences between males and females for factors of the Vocational Interests Scale as well as for the total score of the scale. The norms for the sample of the study were obtained using percentile ranks. Several recommendations and suggestions for future research were presented.
