Physics Attitude Scale: Development, Validity and Reliability

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to develop a “Valid and Reliable Physics Attitude Scale” which can be used to identify the attitudes of high school students to physics, to related subjects and research studies after the renewed physics curriculum. In the development of the draft scale, initial items are prepared in terms of an expert’s opinions after the related physics attitude scales has been reviewed. The scale was administered to 841 high school students at 7 high schools in Trabzon. Factor analysis was conducted in order to determine the construct validity and the Cronbach-Alpha, total internal reliability coefficient, of the scale was calculated as 0.95. Results show that the scale has 3 factors, and its items, in terms of total item correlation, changed between 0.58 and 0.71. It was also determined that the nature of factors of scale was appropriate to the attitudes and values of new physics curriculum. Some suggestions were made in the light of findings.