Expectation Scale for Mathematical Applications Course: A Study on Validity and Reliability

This study aims to develop a measurement tool with high validity and reliability in order to reveal what secondary school students expect of mathematical applications course. For this purpose, researchers developed an Expectation Scale for Mathematical Applications Course on 5 point Likert scale with 29 items and three factors. The scale was applied on a total of 405 fifth- and sixth-graders to take mathematical applications course at state secondary schools in a medium sized city of north east of Turkey. Exploratory factor analysis is used to determine the structural validity of the scale. Reliability analysis concluded that reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) of the scale is .93. Reliability coefficients of three factors obtained from the scale vary between .81 and .94 explaining 60% of the total variance of the scale. According to these values, we can say that the developed scale is a data collection tool with high validity, reliability and variance explanatoriness.