Özet:

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable scale to identify attitudes of teacher candidates towards the history of science and using the history of science as a teaching method in their classes. For this purpose, the related field literature was searched and item pool was created. Following that, items in the item pool were sent to five experts to ensure the content validity. The pre-form and final-form of the developed scale were administered two different samples. The pre-form of the scale was administered to 183 pre-service teachers. The construct validity of the pre-form of the scale was examined with Exploratory Factor Analysis. Additionally, Cronbach alpha correlation coefficients, t-tests between items' means of upper 27%-lower 27% points and Pearson product moment correlations were calculated. The second stage of the study was carried out with 113 pre-service teachers in order to perform the confirmatory factor analysis of the final form of the scale. The construct validity of the final form of the scale was examined through Confirmatory Factor Analysis and the reliability was calculated through Cronbach alpha correlation coefficients and Pearson product moment correlations. As a result, the History of Science Attitude Scale, a 5-point Likert-type attitude scale consisted of three subscales with 29 items was developed. Cronbach alpha coefficient of the whole scale is 0.95. Internal consistency coefficients for the sub-scales varied between 0.85 and 0.93 and found to be within admissible limits. In the light of the results, it could be argued that the History of Science Attitude Scale is valid and reliable instrument and can be used in identifying attitudes of teacher candidates towards the history of science and using the history of science as a teaching method in their classes.

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