Construct Validity and Reliability of Attitudes towards Chemistry of Science Teacher Candidates

Abstract

Developing students' positive attitude toward learning is one of the important things, because some researchers mention that attitudes toward the subjects are related to academic achievement. Teachers, in the implementation of learning can evaluate attitudes toward the subjects, in order to know how students' attitude toward learning that is/has been going on. Therefore, an attitude assessment is required for valid, reliable and practical learning. The purpose of this research is to develop a Likert scale type questionnaire that can measure students' attitudes toward chemistry. In this study initially has been compiled as many as 43 items. The items in the present scale were adapted from the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) and Attitudes towards Chemistry Lessons Scale (ATCLS). After the contents validation of the questionnaire by the expert, the questionnaire is tested on 245 college students. Determination of construct validity which is conducted with exploratory factor analysis obtained 32 items valid question. The result of factor analysis shows that the scale has nine factors that explain 62.105% of the total variance. In addition, it shows the finding of 'reliability coefficient (Cronbach' alpha) of 0.91. The results obtained showed that it has obtained valid and reliable questionnaires as a measuring tool that can be used to determine student attitudes toward chemistry in chemistry foodstuffs lectures.