Abstract:

The aim of this study is to adapt the "Teacher Rating Scale of Children's Motivation for Science" developed by Patrick and Mantzipoulos (2008), which measures motivation towards science in early childhood, to Turkish culture and to examine the psychometric properties of the scale. The study group of the research consists of 367 children aged 48-72 months. In order to establish evidence of the validity and reliability of the measurement tool, various analyzes were performed. According to the results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) regarding the construct validity; Two of the goodness of fit index were found to be acceptable and five of them showed perfect fit. It was seen that the Turkish version of the scale confirmed the two-dimensional structure in the original 14-item “Children's Motivation for Science: Teacher Evaluation Scale (COBIM)”. Factor load values change between 0.77 and 0.91 for the sub-dimension of Interest in Learning Science, 0.49 and 0.85 for the sub-dimension of Independence versus the Need for Support for Learning Science. In order to prove reliability, Mcdonald omega (ω) obtained by using factor loading values and specific variances as well as Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated. While the omega coefficient obtained for the first sub-dimension was 0.95, the omega coefficient obtained for the second sub-dimension was determined as 0.88. The Cronbach alpha coefficients calculated for both sub-dimensions are 0.95 and 0.89, respectively. All these analysis results show that the scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to determine the science motivation of 48-72 months old children.

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