Problem çözmeye yönelik öz-yeterlik ölçeği geliştirme çalışması

Abstract

The primary goal of education is to help people become better problem solvers by utilizing their thinking and mental abilities. As a result, affective factors should be considered in addition to cognitive factors. Self-efficacy is one of these affective factors. Self-efficacy refers to people's beliefs about their skills to perform a task and succeed by organizing necessary activities. In this case, problem-solving self-efficacy is defined as one's belief in one's own ability to deal with problems patiently. In this study, we aimed to develop a scale to measure problem-solving self-efficacies. The study was executed according to scale development stages. Data were collected from 422 eighth-grade students in Turkey's public middle schools to develop and validate the scale. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the scale's factor structure and confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the resulting structure. In addition, item analysis of the scale items was executed. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, it was seen that the scale had two factors. However, according to the confirmatory factor analysis, it was determined that all values provided a good or perfect fit. Furthermore, Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.91; for subfactors, 0.88 and 0.87, respectively, indicating that the scale is highly reliable. A high validity and reliability scale was eventually developed to determine problem-solving self-efficacy. Studies in the literature show that students' self-efficacy is related to their problem-solving skills. Therefore, we propose additional research to investigate the developed scale's effect on students while considering demographic factors.