Development of STEM attitude scale for secondary school students: Validity and reliability study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable attitude scale that could measure secondary school students' attitudes towards the Science-Technology-Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This study was conducted in 2017-2018 academic year with 2500 secondary school students studying in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades from fifteen (15) different secondary schools in ten different (10) provinces of seven (7) different regions of Turkey. The study is designed according to the scanning method which is a descriptive research method. When determining the sample of the research, stratified sampling method was taken into consideration. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were performed to test the validity of the scale structure. KMO in EFA .919, and the Barlett’s test χ2 value was found as 26236,010 (p