Development of Ataturk Perception Scale: Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a scale which determines teacher candidates’ perceptions of Atatürk. Teacher candidates who will teach related subjects in their professional lives are targeted. For this purpose, a scale with four themes is prepared after literature review and expert views on the subject. Piloting of the draft is carried out with 209 teacher candidates from the department of History and Social Sciences in a Faculty of Education at a state university. As a result of the process of developing the scale, a final 32 item
scale, which explains 45.63% of the total variance and has 14.60 one-factor solution with eigenvalues, was reached. In the scale, total item correlation values of the items were in the range of .51 and .71 and item factor loads are in the range of .43 and .81. As for that, Cronbach Alfa coefficient for internal consistency of the items was .94. These reached values show that The Perception of Atatürk Scale is valid and reliable in acceptable standards. In other words, the findings indicate that the scale is sufficient to measure teacher candidates’ perceptions of Atatürk.