Study of developing a scale of attitude towards radiation

The aim of this research is to develop a scale for measuring the knowledge and attitude of the university students to the concept of radiation. That's why, for assessing sensorial learning's included in educational aims, a likert type scale was prepared to determine what the thoughts of the students about radiation are. This research was applied to 175 students studying at Erzincan University, Faculty of Education, Department of Science Education and Vocational High School. In the first stage of the research, a question pool was originated and an attitude scale of 45 questions was formed making use of the questions taken from this question pool. These questions were reduced to 35 and were applied to the students after consulting to an expert. Pilot study of this attitude scale was done. The data was done analyzed statistically. The questions including the perspective against the objects that may be the source of radiation and that we have to live together and face in daily life were prioritised. Content and construct validities were examined for the validity study of the scale. We utilized from the opinion of an expert to determine the scope validity, and from Croncbach alpha reliability coefficient was found to be 0.885. The scale was determined as seven factors by a factor analysis for the construct validity. This research is supposed to inform society and the university students about radiation. It's supposed that the scale will enlighten the studies to be done in the future about radiation. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.