A Validity and Reliability Study of the Basic Electronics Skills Self-Efficacy Scale (BESS)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to improve a measurement tool to evaluate the self-efficacy of Electrical-Electronics Engineering students through their basic electronics skills. The sample group is composed of 124 Electrical-Electronics engineering students. The validity of the scale is analyzed with two different methods through factor analysis and distinctiveness. To evaluate the how much each item that exists in the scale can measure the factor they belong to, item total factor correlations and corrected correlations are calculated on the data. According to the acquired values, each item and each factor in the scale are found to serve to the run-of the scale and the aim of scaling the desired facility, in a meaningful level. Moreover, analyzing the t value related to the differences between the groups of top 27% and bottom 27%, the item distinctiveness's are researched and it is detected that the distinctiveness of both of the run-of the scale and each one of the items is high level; in other words, it is detected that each item is distinctive in the desired level. The internal consistency coefficients of the scale is calculated using two congruent halves correlations, Cronbach Alpha, Sperman-Brown formula and Guttmann split-half reliability formula. Consequently, it is concluded that the scale is a reliable and valid scale and this scale can be used to determine the basic electronics skills of the Electrical-Electronics Engineering students through their self-perceptions.