THE INSTRUMENTS USED IN SCIENCE EDUCATION IN TURKEY: A DESCRIPTIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The aim of this descriptive content analysis study was to analyze recent research articles related to developing and adapting scale/achievement tests. For this purpose national journals were searched. Totally 62 articles published in 21 different journals between 2002 and 2013 were analyzed in terms of participants, subjects, validity and reliability studies, data collection tools, research methods/designs employed, sample sizes, data analysis methods, variance range, factor loading, and Cronbach-Alpha values. Scale/Achievement Test Classification Form developed by researchers was used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that science and technology discipline was the most common subject for the developed/adapted scales and achievement tests. The most common participant groups were undergraduate and secondary level students and the common sample sizes were around 101-200. In addition, the common research trend in scales was student attitudes. Exploratory factor analysis was the most preferred analysis (74 %) for the developed/adapted scales, and confirmatory factor analysis was run for a small number of studies (4%).