Abstract:

In this study, developing a valid and reliable attitude scale is aimed in order to survey the attitudes of teacher candidates towards special education lesson. Scale developing process was initiated by studying the attitude scales found in the literature. In consequence of studying the items found in the item pool in the direction of expert opinion, a draft scale form which was fixed as 30 items was formed, and it was conducted on 141 female (%62.4) and 85 (%37.6) male students of 226 students in total studying in The Department of Early Childhood Education, Classroom Teaching, Psychological Counselling and Guidance in Faculty of Education. Within the scope of validity study, the scale was subjected to a confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, and its internal consistency was analysed for reliability. In accordance with to the results of exploratory factor analysis; it was identified that the Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) value of the scale was .86; the result of Barlett Sphericity test was 2174.630, the scale was constituted of 17 items in total in 3 factors, and factor loading values ranged between .50 and .78, and 17 items explained %54.87 of total variance. In consequence of confirmatory factor analysis; it was identified that x2/sd (chi-square/degree of freedom rate) was 1.5; RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation) was 0.04; SRMR (standardized root mean square residual) was 0.05; NNFI (non-normed fit index) was 0.94; CFI (comparative fit index) was 0.96; GFI (goodness of fit index) was 0.92; AGFI (adjusted goodness of fit index) was 0.90. In consequence of confirmatory factor analysis; it was identified that the fitness values of the scale were “acceptable” and in “perfect fit”, and three factors structure of the scale was confirmed. Cronbach-alpha reliability coefficient for the total of the scale was determined as .88. In conclusion, it was identified that the formed scale was a valid and reliable assessment instrument which could be used to identify the teacher candidates’’ attitudes towards special education lesson.

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