Abstract
DEVELOPING A SCALE TO MEASURE PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SOLID WASTE AND RECYCLING: A VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY STUDY
This research is conducted in order to develop a scale to measure pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards solid waste and recycling. These pre-service teachers will teach on elementary and middle school levels and have great influence on students’ attitudes and behaviors. Study group consists of 412 pre-service teachers who attend 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of Elementary Social Studies, Classroom, and Science Teaching Departments of Faculty of Education, Kastamonu University. In order to define the construct validity through data obtained from scale application, explanatory factor analysis was conducted and item discrimination ratios were computed. As a result of analyses, it was observed that this scale has a three-factor structure and it explains a considerable part (49.262%) of the total variance. In conclusion, it can be said that this scale is a valid and reliable one to be used for measuring pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards solid waste and recycling.
Keywords
Solid Waste, Recycling, Attitude, Scale Development, Validity, Reliability, Pre-service Teacher