Adaption and Validation of the Behaviors, Related Attitudes, and Intentions Toward Science-survey (BRAINS) for Albanian-speaking students

Abstract

A primary focus of scientific education studies has been investigating students’ attitudes toward pursuing scientific knowledge, which drives a strong interest in fostering positive attitudes toward science and promoting scientific education. This study provides a comprehensive description of the process of adapting and validating the Behaviors, Related Attitudes, and Intentions toward Science (BRAINS) survey to assess the attitudes toward science of pre-college Albanian-speaking students of natural sciences in Kosovo’s lower-education system. The original version of BRAINS, developed by Summers and Abd-El-Khalick (2018) has been proven reliable by the criteria of current psychometric evaluation and theoretical background. This study employed CFA to assess construct validity of the original survey. The overall results validated the acceptability and reliability of the scale (α = 0.91), and demonstrated the consistency of its factorial structure with five sub-scales and respective loadings: attitudes toward science (0.49–0.87), behavioral beliefs about science (0.37–0.72), intentions to engage in science (0.37–0.81), normative beliefs (0.39–0.79), and control beliefs (0.37–0.70). The BRAINS survey may be customized for the Kosovar context to emphasize the pertinent beliefs, actions, and intentions of students regarding science and how these impact their performance and decision-making.