Abstract:

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable scale towards students’ attitudes towards Citizenship and Democracy Education course. For that aim, a five-point 23 item Likert-style scale was developed. The scale was administered on 271 students at three different elementary schools in Elazığ city. The explanatory factor analysis method was used to test the construct validity of the scale. According of factor analysis results, a scale including 21 items with two factors was developed. Factor loadings of the scale ranged between .59 and .80 while item test correlation values change between .23 and .67. The factors were named as ‘caring-interest’ and ‘liking’. Cronbach alpha reliability of each factor were measured to be ?:.92 and ?:.84 respectively and for the whole as .98.Spearman-Brown correlation coefficient was calculated to be .95 and Guttmann split-half value was calculated to be .95. Cronbach alpha value for the first 11 items was calculated to be .97 and .97 for the last 10 items. While the first factor explained 34.485% of the total variance, second factor explained 18.231% of the total variance. According to the results of confirmatory factor analysis, fit index values of the two-factor model were GFI= .96, AGFI= .93, SRMR= .061, NFI=.94, NNFI=.96, CFI=.96, X2/sd=2.36 and RMSEA=.071. It was concluded that the scale was a valid and reliable scale in measuring elementary school students’ attitudes toward Citizenship and Democracy Education course.

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