The Reliability and Validity Study of the Scale Measuring High School Students’ Attitude Towards Biology: Using Factor Analysis

Abstract

This study focused on the statistical technique using factor analysis to validate the scale measuring high school students’ attitudes towards Biology. The study sample consisted of 500 students (male = 220, female = 280) from public and private institutions offering high school education with Biology as an elective subject, in Islamabad. As part of this study, the scale developed by (Ahmad and Jamil, 2019) for the attitude of students towards biology was adopted. Research has shown that attitude and achievement are interrelated. Previously, research studies used exploratory factor analysis to analyze the validity of the scale construction. The present study used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to fill the gap in the literature because, after exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis is required to test whether the models estimate the intended theoretical constructs. Following the procedure of factor analysis, six factors of the Biology Attitude Scale (BAS) were identified. The findings of the study show that the scale had a multidimensional construct. Further, the internal consistency reliability analysis was performed. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.86 which shows high internal consistency. It is recommended that BAS is a reliable and valid measurement tool that can be used to determine the attitude of secondary students towards Biology.