Preschool Teachers' Coding and Computational Thinking Skills: A Scale Adaptation Study

Abstract

This study aimed to adapt the “Teacher Beliefs about Coding and Computational Thinking Scale (TBCCTS)” developed by Rich, Larsen, and Mason, which measures preschool perspectives on computational thinking and coding, into Turkish and preschool education and to analyse the psychometric properties of the scale. The study group of the research include of 201 preschool teachers. Various data analyses were conducted about the measurement tool's validity and reliability. Based on Confirmatory Factor Analysis findings regarding construct validity, it was determined that one of the goodness of fit indices was acceptable and the other four values showed excellent fit. It was seen that the 4-dimensional structure of the 33 items of the original scale was confirmed within the scope of this research. In this context, the adapted scale consists of 4 dimensions and 33 items. Factor values ranged between 0.35-0.92. As a result of the reliability analysis of the scale, it was found that the Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.91 and the sub-dimensions ranged between 0.87-0.94. The study found that the scale was a viable and reliable way to measure preschool teachers' perceptions of computational thinking and coding.