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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article 7 (Jun., 2016) |
An instrument development study for determining prospective science teachers’ science-specific epistemological beliefs
Mustafa Serdar KOKSAL
Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education, Department of Special Education, Ankara-TURKEY
Corresponding author's E-mail: bioeducator@gmail.comPelin ERTEKIN
Inonu University, Faculty of Education, Department of Elementary Education, Malatya-TURKEY
E-mail: pelin.ertekin@inonu.edu.trReceived 19 Feb., 2016
Revised 23 Jun., 2016
The study is focusing on development of an instrument to determine science-specific epistemological beliefs of prospective science teachers. The study involved 364 (male = 82, female = 282) prospective science teachers enrolled in a science teacher education program. The confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis and correlation analysis were done for validating 15-item instrument. The confirmatory factor analysis results confirmed that the instrument had 5 dimensions (speed of knowledge acquisition, tentativeness of knowledge, structure of knowledge, source of knowledge and control over knowledge acquisition). The Cronbach alpha values of all dimensions ranged from .42 to .60. The correlation analysis showed that dimensions were partially independent from each other. The results of the study supported validation of a five-dimension instrument with partially independent dimensions except for low reliability values.
Keywords: Instrument development, prospective science teachers, science-specific epistemological beliefs, validity and reliability
