Development of Engineering Perception Scale

Abstract

The study aimed to develop an engineering perception scale for pre-service science teachers. The data were obtained from a total of 151 pre-service science teachers attending the department of science teaching at a state university in a province in the eastern region of Turkey. It took 3 years to collect the data. Engineering education was given to pre-service science teachers for 14 weeks within the framework of the "STEM, Robotics, Coding" course. Engineering education includes machine-style activities made with simple materials, that is, with materials found in our environment, which we can even call waste. In addition, activities involving the construction of machines used in daily life using Legos were also carried out. For example; washing machine, carousel, hand dryer, car windshield wiper, etc. They created working, that is, moving machines. In engineering education, they first made drawings for the objects they would create, then determined the materials needed to realize the drawings, and then proceeded to the construction phase. While determining these activities, the objectives of the course, the development of pre-service teachers' engineering skills, making machines and objects that exist in their environment, understanding their working principles, using knowledge from other fields and gaining experience in making different designs with them were taken as the basis. First of all, 5 open-ended questions were prepared to reveal the engineering perceptions of pre-service teachers. The literature was reviewed while preparing the questions. The open-ended questions were prepared by taking the opinions of 3 faculty members specialized in science education and 2 engineering faculty members. A 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of 40 items was developed based on the answers given by the pre-service teachers to the questions. All items of the 40-item scale were examined by 2 field experts and 2 Turkish language experts and finalized. The data obtained were analyzed through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Then, the same data set was analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). As a result of the analyses; a 31-item scale consisting of 6 sub-factors was obtained.