Development of an Attitude Scale for Moral Literacy Skills: Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

In recent years, some changes have emerged in the general aims of education programs, and in this context, educational authorities have adopted new approaches aiming at nurturing skills. Especially in moral education, which is an indispensable part of citizenship education, the concept of moral literacy is one of the important isssue of educational discussions. In the literature, there are many studies asserting that schools should educate children for moral literacy as well as primitive language literacy, science and mathematics literacy, intercultural literacy. On the other hand, it should be noted that there are not enough studies dealing with the application of the subject in the field. In addition, it is seen that countries have not yet taken sufficient steps for a change in their educational systems and have not demonstrated a strong will. Moral literacy refers to a skill that includes thinking about one's own moral values, determining the possible consequences of various alternatives and their effects, making logical decisions about which option is compatible with one's values, acting in line with one's values, and taking responsibility for one's own actions. Moral literacy, conceptualized by Nancy Tuana, consists of three basic elements, namely moral moral sensitivity, moral reasoning skills, and moral imagination, and three sub-skills under them. These skills generally include the intellectual skills that lead the moral decision-making process. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable attitude scale based on Tuana's theory. Within the scope of the research designed in the general survey model, the relevant literature was scanned and the studies on moral literacy were examined. With the clarification of the theoretical structure, the scale development process was started. The following stages were followed in the development of the moral literacy scale: i. Creating the item pool, ii. Content validaty, iii. Reviewing and finalizing the draft form, iv. Application of the scale, v. Item analysis, analysis of construct validity and reliability analysis, vi. Examining the correlation between subscales and the total score, vii. Putting into the final form of the scale and reporting. In the first stage, the draft form consisting of 27 items was sent to five field experts and a language expert, 1 item was removed from the scale as they were not compatible with the scope in line with the suggestions of the field experts, and 1 more item was added. The draft form, which was finalized with changes, was applied to 653 university students studying at Eskişehir Osmangazi University and Anadolu University in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. 88 data, which were not marked carefully and were not found reliable during the data entry to excel, were excluded from the analysis. In the item analysis of the scale, 3 items were excluded from the draft scale and the construct validity was passed. In the exploratory factor analysis, 7 more items with values less than .40 and overlapping were excluded from the analysis. As a result of the factor analysis performed after this process, a structure consisting of 5 factors and 20 items was obtained. As a result of the reliability analysis, it was seen that the whole scale had high reliability, while the sub-dimensions had medium and low reliability levels. It was also determined that the structure obtained by exploratory factor analysis was confirmed as a result of testing with confirmatory factor analysis. According to the path analysis, it can be said that the existing structure fits well. When the relationship between the sub-dimensions of the scale is examined, it can be stated that there is a significant positive relationship between the sub-dimensions and a total score can be obtained for the attitudes towards the moral literacy skill of the scale. As a result, it can be said that the scale obtained as a result of these processes can measure the attitudes of university students towards moral literacy skills in a reliable and valid way.