Development of Physics Attitude Scale (PAS): An Instrument to Measure Students' Attitudes Toward Physics

The present study is focused on the detailed description of Physics Attitude Scale (PAS) to measure students' attitudes toward physics. The development of this new instrument involved extensive interviews with both the experts as well as the students. This was followed by expert reviews and pilot testing of the instrument. The duly revised draft was used to collect responses from 624 students, aged 15-18 from Government Model Senior Secondary Schools, India. The factor analysis carried out on the resulting data revealed that the final form of the Physics Attitude Scale consists of five dimensions: Enthusiasm toward Physics, Physics Learning, Physics as a Process, Physics Teacher, and Physics as a Future Vocation. The content validity of the scale has been confirmed by the close agreement of experts on the statements. The reliability analysis showed that the scale consists of internally consistent items for each dimension. These findings demonstrate that the Physics Attitude Scale (PAS) possesses robust psychometric properties. It has been further found that a positive correlations exist between (a) enthusiasm toward physics and physics learning; (b) enthusiasm toward physics and physics as a process; (c) enthusiasm toward physics and physics as a future vocation; and (d) physics teacher and physics learning. Thus, the newly developed PAS can be used as an effective instrument by researchers and teachers to assess students' attitudes toward physics.