Abstract:

Academic performance on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is important for the economic development of countries. From the perspectives of social cognitive theory, one of the predictors of academic performance is self-efficacy. In order to measure middle school students’ self-efficacy beliefs in STEM education, STEM Competency Beliefs scale was developed in English originally by Chen, Cannady, Schunn, and Dorph (2017). In this study, it is aimed to adapt the English scale into Turkish and to provide evidence regarding reliability and validity. Throughout the adaptation process, forward and backward translation was completed. In the pilot study (n = 77), the reliability of the data and the clarity of the statements in the Turkish version of the scale was examined. In the main study, the Turkish version was administered to 330 middle school students to investigate the psychometric properties of the scale. The results pointed out that the scores obtained by the Turkish version of the scale had good internal consistency. Regarding the dimensionality of the scale, in contrast to the original version, the adapted scale showed a two-dimensional structure. Measurement invariance findings for gender groups supported configural and metric invariance, whereas scalar invariance was partially achieved. Measurement invariance findings for career choice groups supported configural, metric, and scalar invariance. Scale scores of students were estimated using multidimensional Item Response Theory. The findings suggested that the scale can be utilized for STEM-related research to assess the competency beliefs of students.

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