Developing an attitude scale for cursive handwriting: Validity and reliability study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop an attitude scale for designating the attitudes of primary school pre-service teachers towards cursive handwriting. In the process of developing draft scale a 57-item draft scale on cursive handwriting has been formed. While developing the scale, related literature was searched, pre-service teachers’ opinions were asked and experts’ ideas were benefited. Content validity of draft scale has been reviewed by field specialists and after removing 2 items from scale, pretest of the new 55-item scale has been performed on 379 students. Subsequent to pretest, item analysis of scale; item-sum, item-residual correlations, item distinctiveness, factor analysis and internal consistency on the validity and reliability have been examined respectively. To measure construct validity of scale, exploratory and confirmative factor analyses have been utilized. For exploratory factor analysis (EFA), the scale has been directed to 379 prospective teachers and for confirmative factor analysis (CFA) it has been directed to 254 primary school pre-service teachers. In exploratory factor analysis, SPSS package program and in confirmative factor analysis LISREL program has been utilized. Confirmative factor analysis revealed that this 41-item scale consists of 2 factors. Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients measured for these factors are respectively .94 and .93. Total Cronbach alpha internal reliability coefficient of the scale is .96. Thus it has been concluded that this scale is a valid and reliable tool that can be used to detect the attitudes of primary school pre-service teachers towards cursive handwriting. Key words: Cursive handwriting, scale for attitude, validity, reliability