The Reliability and Validity of the Attitude Scale Towards Problem Based Learning

Abstract

In this study, it wa s a imed to develop a sca le to determine the a ttitudes of students towa rds problem ba sed lea rning. Da ta wa s ga thered from two groups of students; the first group being comprised of 761 students from four medical schools and the second group being comprised of 810 students from one medical school. In the study, item-total correlation and difference of lower-upper group means based item analysis technique, t test, Kruskal Wallis analysis as well as factor analysis was used and Cronbach α coefficient was calculated. The reliability of the scale was found to be high (α= 0.95). In addition, the scale’s ability to distinguish students with different attitudes was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001). In factor analysis of both studies, positive and negative items of the scale were found to assemble in two separate dimensions and to explain the major part (61.32% in the first study, 5 8.8 7 % in the second study) of the sca le’s tota l va riance. The results of the study indicate that the scale has good psychometric properties.