Development of STEM Attitude Scale for Secondary School Students: Validity and Reliability Study

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable attitude scalethat could measure secondary school students' attitudes towards theScience-Technology-Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This study was conductedin 2017-2018 academic year with 2500 secondary school students studying in the 5th,6th, 7th and 8th grades from fifteen (15) different secondary schools in tendifferent (10) provinces of seven (7) different regions of Turkey. Thestudy is designed according to the scanning method which is a descriptiveresearch method. When determining thesample of the research, stratified sampling method was taken intoconsideration. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory FactorAnalysis (CFA) were performed to test the validity of the scale structure.KMO in EFA .919, and the Barlett’s test χ2 value was found as 26236,010 (p<.001). As a result of CFA to determine the model fit of the scale,chi-square fit value of the factor structure consisting of 33 items and 6sub-factors (χ ² = 4083.21, Sd = 480, p = 00) was found to be significant andthe following was found RMSEA: .0548, RMR: .0486, SRMR: .0486, GFI: .902, AGFI:.885, IFI: .902, NFI: .890, NNFI: .892 and CFI: .902. Since all fit values arewithin acceptable limits, it is concluded that the six-factor structure ofscale is a usable, valid model. Internal consistency and test-retestreliability analyzes were performed to determine the reliability of the scale.As a result, the Cronbach Alpha (α) internal consistency reliability value ofthe scale was found as 0.887 and the test-retest reliability value was found as0.804. Based on this, the scale can be said to be highly reliable. It isconcluded that the scale consisting of 33 items and six factors is a valid andreliable tool which determines middle school students’ attitudes toward STEM.