Developing a Prospective-Teachers Oriented Attitude Scale on Genetically Modified Organisms and Psychometric Qualities of the Scale

The objective of present research is to develop a tool that can measure the attitudes of prospective social sciences and classroom teachers on a globally controversial issue; namely genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The voting right of prospective social sciences and classroom teachers to take part in general elections, which indicates utmost importance in any democratic society and their role as potential decision-makers in the diet habits of not only themselves but of their potential kids, makes it an imperative to identify their attitudes towards GMOs. It is an absolute fact that GMOs bear political as well as socio-economic dimensions. Research sampling of present study consists of 1049 prospective teachers from Social Studies and Elementary Teaching Departments from 3 universities. Of the total number of participants, 499 are females and 550 are males. By employing explanatory factor analysis within the scope of validity check, the scale has been downsized to 9 factors comprising of 38 items. Via confirmatory factor analysis, this structuring with 9 factors has been tested. Thus it has been demonstrated that the model exhibits quite-good fit indices. In the analysis of parallel scale, significant relations with other scales have been demonstrated. Item analysis has been performed to detect overall reliability and reliability of subdimensions. Also Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient has been measured. Validity and Reliability scores indicate that this scale exhibits employable qualities in identifying the attitudes of prospective teachers on the issue of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).