Abstract:

The aim of the study is to reveal the results of a validity and reliability study for the attitude scale which is developed to assess the attitudes of first-year undergraduates in Teacher Training in Sciences department towards physics laboratories. At the first step of the study, students who attended Physics Laboratory-I course were asked for their views about physics laboratories. The first items of the scale on attitude were created in parallel to the teacher candidates’ views. The experimental group of the study consists of 118 primary school teacher candidate students at Faculty of Education in Kırıkkale University. As a result of the study on validity and reliability 27 attitude scale items were created 21 of which were positive and 6 of which were negative. This resulting attitude scale with 27 items was called "Attitude Scale Towards Physics Laboratories" ASCTPL . Having made the factor analysis it was seen that the ASCTPL had 6 factors at total. The dimensions of these 6 factors were "Methods and Techniques Applied during the Course", "Teacher's Attitude towards the Course", "Technical Opportunities in the Laboratories", "Associating the Course with Daily Life", "Students' Personal Attitudes towards the Course" and "Field Knowledge". The variant that the whole of the scale expressed was 59,143%, and Cornbach-Alpha coefficient of internal consistency was estimated α = 0,90. Considering the results, it can be concluded that the scale is both valid and reliable. Also, this five point Likert-type scale can be used to determine the attitudes of students at Teacher Training in Sciences department towards the physics laboratories

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