Validation of the single-items Spanish-School Science Attitude Survey (S-SSAS) for elementary education

• Published in: PloS one 2019-01, Vol.14 (1), p.e0209027-e0209027
• Main Authors: Toma, Radu Bogdan, Meneses Villagrá, Jesús Ángel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acceptable noise levels; Adolescent; Analysis; Attitude; Attitudes; Behavior; Biology and Life Sciences; Child; Consistency; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Criteria; Education; Elementary education; Engineering and Technology; Female; Girls; Humans; Male; Measuring instruments; Psychometrics - methods; Quantitative psychology; Research and Analysis Methods; Research methodology; Schools; Science education; Social Sciences; Stability; Statistical analysis; STEM education; Students; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Systematic review; Theory; Validity
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209027

The development of positive attitudes toward science is one of the main priorities in science education. However, there is a lack of reliable and valid instruments to measure Spanish-speaking elementary students' attitudes towards school science. In this study, the translation and validation of the Spanish School-Science Attitude Survey (S-SSAS) is reported. The instrument was administered to 643 students enrolled in 3rd to 6th elementary grades. Psychometric evaluation of the S-SSAS provided sound evidence for validity (face, content, construct and criterion) and reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability). Content validity was confirmed through a panel of experts who reached great consensus in linking items to attitudinal constructs, with an ICC = .956. Think-aloud interviews confirmed that students have easily understood and correctly interpreted all items included, thus providing face validity for the S-SSAS. Consistent with theoretical expectations, predictive validity ranged between -.334 to 543 and concurrent validity was examined through S-SSAS correlation with two external measures of conceptual convergence that ranged from.301 to .560, thus confirming criterion validity. Construct validity was assessed by obtaining consistent results with the original scale in terms of reporting no statistically significant differences in attitudinal profiles towards school science between girls and boys and between students from urban and rural schools. Cronbach αfor the entire scale was .704, with item-total correlation ranging from .243 to .560, which reports acceptable internal consistency. Temporal stability with a 10-days span was good, with ICC = .873 and r = .464-790. Taken together, these results indicate that the Spanish single-items School-Science Attitude Survey is easy to administer and equally interpreted by both girls and boys enrolled in rural and urban elementary schools, thus being a valid and reliable instrument for measuring attitudes towards school science.