Validation of an Instrument for Preservice Teachers and an Investigation of Their New Media Literacy

Abstract

This study aims to validate a recent new media literacy (NML) instrument and investigating NML levels of Turkish preservice teachers. A refined NML framework formed the theoretical basis of the study. The data were collected from 972 preservice teachers enrolled in 11 teacher training programs in 5 public universities in Turkey. The language equivalency, construct validity, internal consistency, item consistency, and item discrimination were provided for the validity and reliability of the adapted scales. The results indicated that preservice teachers had the highest level of literacy in Functional Consuming Skills and the lowest level of literacy in Critical Prosuming Participation while differences were found in terms of gender and teacher training program. The results also expanded the new media literature and promoted the generalizability of the current NML framework with the participation of preservice teachers while producing similar findings with those of the previous ones.