Construct validity and reliability of attitude towards science scale

The present study deals with the development of Attitude towards Science Scale based on TOSRA (Test of science-related attitudes) and anxiety towards science. The study was conducted on students belonging to age group of 14–15 years from government schools of Chandigarh, India. The validity of scale was established using exploratory factor analysis and the final factor structure was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. After content validity of scale 42 items were subjected to principal axis factoring which revealed 5 factors with total variance explained of 78%. These dimensions were identified as Anxiety towards science, enjoyment of science lessons, adoption of scientific attitudes, enjoyment of science lessons and social implications of science. In order to further confirm the theoretical model of five factors confirmatory factor analysis was used.Cronbach Alpha was used to determine reliability of the test which was found to be 0.92.