Abstract:

The aim of this research is to perform the validity and reliability of the scale of interest of the problems of foreign students developed in order to determine the interest of university students in terms of problems of foreign students. The study group consisted of a total of 405 teacher candidates including 240 females and 165 males studying at Kafkas University in the academic year 2017-2018. As a result of the literature review performed by the researchers and the student opinions received, 33 draft items were prepared. A scale form of 30 items was obtained with expert opinions and a pilot practice. The scale form has been applied to teacher candidates. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed in order to determine the validity of the data obtained from teacher candidates. As a result of the analyzes, a 21-item structure consisting of 4 factors which described 63.78% of the total variance of the scale and named as “interest in cultural issues”, “interest in socioeconomic problems”, “interest in extracurricular problems” and “interest in problems in class”, was formed. The adaptation of this structure was found to be at a good level (χ2 / sd= 2.55, RMSEA= 0.06, CFI= 0.93, GFI= 0.90, NFI= 0.90). The Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients calculated to determine the reliability of the scale was found 0.93 for the overall scale, 0.89 for the first factor, 0.80 for the second factor, 0.87 for the third factor and 0.86 for the fourth factor. In the direction of findings from the data of the study, it can be stated that the Scale of Interest in the Problems of Foreign Students is a valid and reliable measurement tool.

Keywords: