THE EVALUATION SCALE OF THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT, THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY STUDY: THE CASE OF TEACHERS AND MANAGERS WORKING IN ARAB EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN ISTANBUL

Abstract

The educational environment is any physical environment that constitutes an important part of all educational activities. The adequacy of the physical environment is the main element of learning and contributes to learning performance. The aim of this study is to develop a scale for the perception of the competence of the educational environment and present it to the literature by making a validity and reliability study. As an example, teachers and administrators working in Arab schools operating in Istanbul are considered. In this process, the first item pool was created. After the content validity of the items submitted to the expert opinions was provided, possible errors and deficiencies were tried to be eliminated with the pilot study and the scale consisting of 31 items was finalized. The application was carried out for 181 people. In order to determine the discrimination power of the items, the item-total correlation was calculated and the significance of the difference between the item averages of the upper 27% and lower 27% groups was examined using the t test. Corrected item total score correlations vary between 0.576 and 0.793. The test results showed that all the differences between the item averages of the upper and lower groups were significant. In order to determine the construct validity of the scale, Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed first and a 4-factor structure that explains 72.43% of the total variance was obtained. Reliability criteria Cronbach's Alpha (CA) values for each dimension and CA value for the overall questionnaire were obtained as expected above 0.70. Model fit was tested with the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the item-factor structure obtained from EFA, and it was seen that the fit indices of the two-factor structure of the scale were confirmed as a result of the good fit decision. Depending on these results; it has been determined that the education environment assessment scale, which consists of classroom environment, building conditions, equipment and relations sub-dimensions, is a valid and reliable measurement tool.