Curriculum Design Orientations Preference Scale of Teachers: Validity and Reliability Study

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable scale for preferences of teachers in regard of their curriculum design orientations. Because there was no scale development study similar to this one in Turkey, it was considered as an urgent need to develop such a scale in the study. The sample of the research consisted of 300 elementary and high school teachers, working in Nigde province and its districts, selected according to cluster sampling method. In light of the scales obtained from the related literature and other information, a pool consisting of 35 items were formed by the researcher. Then, the first form of the scale was presented into the views of a group of field experts for content validity. In order to test the validity of the scale, the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out in the research. A result of the exploratory factor analysis, the scale consisted of three factors: (i) subject-centred curriculum design orientation, (ii) student-centred learner-centred) curriculum design orientation, and (iii) problem-centred curriculum design orientation with 30 items. KMO value of the scale was found as 0.93 and Bartlett's test of sphericity was found as 3051.295/df=435 in the study. Besides, the factor loadings of the scale were found to be ranged from 0.81 to 0.45 and item-total correlation values were found between 0.71 and 0.49. Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient value was found as 0.94 and Spearman-Brown split-half correlation value was found as 0.91. It was seen that reliability coefficient values of the factors of in the scale ranged between 0.89 and 0.87 in the research. Also, it was understood that there were positive correlations amongst the factors of the scale. The confirmatory factor analysis was applied on the three-factor structure obtained from the scale's exploratory factor analysis on a group of 320 teachers, similar to the sample group of the study. As a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, it was understood that the obtained values [X2/df=604.02/402; GFI=0.83; AGFI=0.80; RMSEA=0.05; CFI=0.90; NFI=0.77; NNFI=0.89; RMR=0.077; SRMR=0.056], confirmed the three-factor structure of the scale. Thus, according to the results obtained in the research, it could be said that the scale developed in this study is a valid and reliable scale to be used both by elementary and high school teachers.