Social Studies Learning Approaches Scale (SÖYÖ): Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

This study aims to develop a valid and reliable instrument for measuring students' social studies learning approaches. The research was conducted on a study group who consisted of 388 high school students studying in located in the central district of Diyarbakır in 2014-2015 education year first semester. Expert opinion was consulted with regard to the scale's content and face validity. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were performed in order to measure the scale's construct validity. As a result of EFA, a 24-item and a two-factor structure, which explains 39.43% of the total variance was obtained. The emerging factors were called as a Deep Learning Approach and Surface Learning Approach. The findings acquired CFA indicated that the 24 items and two factor structure related to social studies learning approaches scale have satisfactory goodness of fit indices. The scale's reliability coefficients were calculated by means of internal consistency and test-retest reliability methods. As a result of reliability analysis, it was determined that reliability coefficients were within admissible limits. The findings of the item analyses demonstrated that all of the items in the scale were discriminatory. In light of these results it could be argued that the scale is reliable and valid and can be used in order to test students' social studies learning approaches