Development of an attitude scale towards asking questions for elementary education students

Abstract

In this study, an instrument assessing elementary education students’ attitudes towards asking questions in the classroom was developed. Items were determined based on interviews with students and teachers and scaled according to five-point Likert scale, “Never”, Rarely”, “Sometimes”, “Usually”, “Always”. Validity and reliability analyses of the instrument were conducted with two different study groups. Firstly, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were done with Study Groups 1 (203 fourth-grade students). Then, CFA was repeated with data obtained from Study Group 2 (334 fourth-grade students). According to EFA results, two constructs were determined and these constructs including 24 items were named as Openness towards asking question and Anxiety towards asking question. CFA goodness of fit indices obtained from both groups showed that the scale with two constructs was acceptable. Cronbach’s α reliability coefficients for each construct were respectively .78 and .80 for Study Group 1 and .76 and .77 for Study Group 2. As a result of analyses, reliability and validity of the developed instrument was ensured.