Adaptation of the Science Experience Scale in Informal Environments into Turkish: Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to adapt the Science Experience Scale in Informal Environments (ScESInE), which wasdeveloped by Gafoor and Narayan (2008), to Turkish culture and to evaluate the validity and reliability of the scale.Design/Methodology/Approach: In the study, the Turkish translation study of the scale was performed by using exploratoryfactor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis for validity and Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient and itemanalysis for reliability. A total of 500 students participated in the study. The students were studying in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8thgrades of the secondary schools in the central district of the province of Karaman in the fall semester of the 2019-2020academic year.Findings: As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, it was found that 41.01% of the total variance of the scale consisting offour factors was explained. Scale item factor load values varied between .45 and .79. As a result of the analysis done forreliability, Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficients for overall scale and observation, addition, activity, andexperiment sub-dimensions were found as 85, .71, .87, .63, and .71, respectively. As a result of item analysis for reliability, thecorrected item total correlations were found between .30 and 68. Finally, as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis goodfit indexes were obtained (?2 = 788.78, sd = 395, ?2 / sd = 1.99, p = 0.00; RMSEA = .045, RMR = .026, SRMR = .056 , GFI = .90,AGFI = .89, CFI = .95, NFI = .91, NNFI = .95, IFI = .99, RFI = .90).Highlights: As a result of all these analyses, it can be said that the Turkish version of the scale is valid and reliable and can beused by researchers in scientific research.