Development of an Attitude Scale towards High School Physics Lessons

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a Likert type attitude scale for high school students with regard to high school physics lessons. The research was carried out with high school students who were studying in Ankara. First, the opinions of 105 high school students about physics lessons were obtained and then 55 scale items were determined from these opinions. Expert opinions were sought for the language and content validity of these items. In line with the expert opinions some items were corrected and some were taken out of the scale. The draft scale, which had 44 items, was tested on 698 high school students. The factor structure of the scale was ascertained by carrying out exploratory factor analysis from the data that were gathered. The variance of the scale, which consists of 28 items and 4 factors (interest, anxiety, importance, and self-efficacy), was 60%. The consistent between the model and the scale data was observed by carrying out confirmatory factor analysis. Since the fit indices of the scale ensure the acceptability criteria, it was observed that the factor model is appropriate. The Cronbach-alpha reliability coefficients of the factors of the scale developed were calculated and it was decided that the scale is reliable.