The Study of Validity and Reliability of the Attitude Scale on the Subject of Geometric Objects for the Prospective Teachers

Abstract

One of the most important factors that affects on students in education is their teacher. There is a
positive correlation between teachers’ attitude toward teaching of their lesson and students’ attitude toward this
lesson. Also, the students of a teacher who shows a positive attitude toward her lesson will have a positive
attitude too, and as a result, they will be more successful. For this reason, the attitude of teachers is very
important. It is necessary to detect the teachers who have a negative attitude toward their lesson. Their attitudes
must be changed into positive. However, attitudes may not change easily. Therefore, when prospective teachers
were studying at the university, measuring and detecting the attitudes of teachers’ become more significant
means. In this study, a measuring instrument that aims to measure the prospective mathematics teachers’
attitude toward the subject of geometric objects, sub-learning area of geometry, was developed. A questionnaire
was administered to 306 university students in order to determine its reliability and validity. Exploratory and
confirmatory factor analysis were done for construct validity. The findings showed that this instrument has
three factors structure model. This model explains an important part of the variance (%60.016). Cronbach-Alfa
and test re-test reliability coefficients were found for reliability. These findings show that this scale is valid and
reliable.