Mithat TAKUNYACI, Ercan MASAL, Melek MASAL, Özkan ERGENE, Kübra ERDEN

Fennema - Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales: Adaptaition to Turkish Culture

Abstract. The aim of this study is to adapt the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales developed by Fennema and Sherman in 1976 to Turkish language and culture. Data were collected from 1123 middle-school students and 967 high-school students a in order to adapt the scale to Turkish culture. The scale was first translated from its original version in English to Turkish by three linguists, and then the translation was revised upon consultation with two domain experts and one measurement and evaluation expert. None of the scale items were discarded during these stages. The construct validity of the Turkish translation of the scale was examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis was conducted using Item Analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha, internal consistency coefficient, and split-half correlation. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability calculations were conducted on SPSS 20.0, and the confirmatory factor analysis calculations were conducted on the Lisrel 8.7 software package. Following the validity and reliability studies, the scale is composed of nine subscales and 108 items as in the original form. As a result of the adaptation of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales, a valid and reliable scale suitable for Turkish and Turkish cultures was obtained.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Fennema-Sherman, attitude towards learning mathematics mathematics attitude, scale adaptation

Fennema - Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales: Adaptaition to Turkish Culture

The aim of this study is to adapt the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales developed by Fennema and Sherman in 1976 to Turkish language and culture. Data were collected from 1123 middle-school students and 967 high-school students a in order to adapt the scale to Turkish culture. The scale was first translated from its original version in English to Turkish by three linguists, and then the translation was revised upon consultation with two domain experts and one measurement and evaluation expert. None of the scale items were discarded during these stages. The construct validity of the Turkish translation of the scale was examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis was conducted using Item Analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha, internal consistency coefficient, and split-half correlation. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability calculations were conducted on SPSS 20.0, and the confirmatory factor analysis calculations were conducted on the Lisrel 8.7 software package. Following the validity and reliability studies, the scale is composed of nine subscales and 108 items as in the original form. As a result of the adaptation of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales, a valid and reliable scale suitable for Turkish and Turkish cultures was obtained.

Keywords:

Fennema-Sherman, attitude towards learning mathematics, scale adaptation,

PDF

___

Aiken, L. R. (1970). Attitudes toward mathematics. Review of Educational Research, 40(4), 551−596.
Aiken, L. R. (1972). Research on attitudes toward mathematics. Arithmetic Teacher, 19(3), 229−234.
Aydeniz, M., Cakmakcı, G., Cavas, B., Ozdemir, S., Akgunduz, D., Corlu, M. S., & Oner, T. (2015). STEM eğitimi Türkiye raporu: Günün modası mı yoksa gereksinim mi? [A report on STEM Education in Turkey: A provisional agenda or a necessity?] [White Paper]. İstanbul, Turkey: Aydın Üniversitesi. Bartlett, M. S. (1950).Tests of significance in factor analysis.The British Journal of Psychology, 3 (Part II), 77– 85.
Blackweir, J. (2016). Attitudes towards mathematics: Development and validation of an online, semantically differentiated, visual analogue scale, Thesis and Coursework of The University of Western Australia.
Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2013). Sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı: İstatistik, araştırma deseni, SPSS uygulamaları ve yorum. (18th ed.). Ankara: Pegem Akademi Yayıncılık.
Di Martino, P., & Zan, R. (2010). ‘Me and maths’: Towards a definition of attitude grounded on students’ narratives. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 13(1), 27–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10857-009-9134-z
Etsey, Y., & Snetzler, S. (1998). A meta-analysis of gender differences in student attitudes toward mathematics. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, USA, 13−17 April 1998.
Fennema, E., & Sherman, J. (1976). Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitudes scales: Instruments designed to measure attitudes toward the learning of mathematics by females and males. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 7(5), 324−326.
Felder, R. M., Felder, G. N., Mauney, M., Hamrin, C. E., & Dietz, E. J. (1995). A longitudinal study of engineering student performance and retention. III. Gender differences in student performance and attitudes. Journal of Engineering Education, 84(2), 151−163.
Johnson, R. M. (2000). Gender differences in mathematics performance. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. (1993). LISREL 8: Structural equation modeling with the SIMPLIS command language. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Kaiser, H. (1974).An index of factorsimplicity.Psychometrika39: 31–36.
Kanny, MA, Sax, LJ, Riggers-Pieh, TA. (2014). Investigating forty years of stem research: How explanations for the gender gap have evolved over time. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 20(2), 127–148.
Khine, M. S., & Afari, E. (2014). Psychometric properties of an inventory to determine the factors that affect students’ attitudes toward mathematics. Psychology, Society, & Education, 6(1), 1–15. Retrieved from http://psye.org/articulos/khine.pdf
LeGrand, J. C. (2013). Exploring gender differences across elementary, middle, and high school students' science and math attitudes and interest (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).
Leslie, S., Cimpian, A., Meyer, M., & Freeland, E. (2015). Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines. Science, 347(6219), 262–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1261375
Lim, S. (2012). Using history as context in pre-tertiary Singapore mathematics classrooms: Effects on achievement, motivation, attitudes and anxiety (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA.
Liu (2003). Developing a Scaletomeasuretheınteractivity of websites, Journal of AdvertisingResearch, June, 207–217.
Ma, X., & Kishor, N. (1997). Assessing the relationship between attitude toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics: A meta-analysis. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(1), 26−47.
F. Mulhern, G. Rae. (1998). Development of a shortened form of the Fennema–Sherman mathematics attitudes scale Educational and Psychological Measurement, 58, pp. 295-306, 10.1177/0013164498058002012
Neale, D. (1969). The role of attitudes in learning mathematics. Arithmetic Teacher, 16(8), 631−640.
Ross, V. (2015). More than “a little bit nervous”: Understanding the experiences of young women with anxiety during secondary school. (Unpublished master’s thesis, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario).
Tapia, M. (1996). The attitudes toward mathematics instrument. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, Tuscaloosa, USA, 6−8 November 1996.
Tapia, M., & Marsh, G. E. (2000). Effect of gender, achievement in mathematics, and ethnicity on attitudes toward mathematics. Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, Bowling Green, KY, USA.
Triandis, H. (1971). Attitude and attitude change. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 68–81.
Walberg, H. J., & Haertel, G. D. (1992). Educational psychology's first century. Educational Psychology, 84, 6- 19.
Yıldırım, H. H., Yıldırım, S., & Ceylan, E. (2017) Türkiye Perspektifinden TIMSS 2015 Sonuçları. Türk Eğitim Derneği (TED). Ankara.