A Study on Developing Special Teaching Methods Attitude Scale for Pre-service Music Teachers

Ceren Saygı Gerçeker

Department of Music, Faculty of Education, Adnan Menderes University, Turkey

Abstract

The objective of the current study is to develop an attitude scale for pre-service music teachers’ special teaching methods course. The data of the research was obtained in the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The study group consists of 388 pre-service music teachers who continue their education at eight universities in Turkey. Before proceeding to further analysis, the missing values and outliers were processed. As a result, mean substitution was performed for the missing data in the dataset and 2 participants with outliers were excluded from the study. The suitability of the data for factor analysis was determined by running the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity. Result of the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was found to be 0.97. The overall internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha) of the single-factor and 58 item-scale was determined to be 0.98.

Keywords: Pre-service music teacher, Special teaching methods course, Attitude, Scale development, Special teaching methods.

1. Introduction

Education is a triangle of knowledge, process and target. Teachers are therefore the most significant agents in the educational process. Because teacher is the one who manages and directs the process. In this respect, teachers need to be equipped with knowledge and skills required for both the teaching profession and their fields to run the process successfully. Instead of preparing teaching competency areas for each field individually, Ministry of National Education General Directorate of Teacher Training and Education (2017) sets forth 3 fields of teaching competency,  namely,  “vocational knowledge”( field knowledge, field training, regulation knowledge), “vocational skill” (planning education and instruction, creating learning environments, managing  learning and teaching process)  and “attitude and values” (national, moral and universal values, approach to student, communication and cooperation, personal and vocational development)  

As it does in every discipline, it is of vital importance that pre-service music teachers must be equipped with certain competencies in the educational process. In this sense, it would be quite useful to touch upon the music education system in our country. Music education program is offered by universities’ music education departments at the education faculties. Students who pass university entrance exam are entitled to take a special talent examination performed in line with the certain criteria applied by universities’ departments, thereby being eligible for a candidate teacher. In music education departments, students are required to undertake following courses during their four-year program: individual courses (voice training, individual instrument training and piano playing), collective music education courses (chorus, orchestration, school instruments, music history) and courses on teaching profession. Amongst the courses mentioned, special teaching methods course provides a strong bond between what is learned and what is to be taught. Special teaching methods course duration is four hours per week in the second term of the 3th grade and the first term of the senior class. The course includes 2 hours theoretical and 2 hours practical sessions. According to the Council of Higher Education (CoHE), the special teaching methods I course content involves fundamental concepts of the field, the integration of fundamental concepts into field education, the regulations pertaining to the Constitution and Minister of Education, objectives, materials, documents and analysis of documents. When it comes to the content of the special teaching methods course II, it encompasses following subjects: the concepts of music education and training, activity and lesson planning (individual, collective, daily, monthly, yearly) for every phase and process of the education, evaluation of music education activities, assessment and evaluation.

In terms of the course content, special teaching methods course plays a crucial role in raising a qualified music teacher. Pre-service music teachers’ interests, enthusiasm, willingness to attend the course and working eagerly, in other words, their attitudes towards the course will influence their academic success. At this point, it would be useful to explain the concept of the attitude, one of the affective peculiarities influencing academic success, to understand the issue more clearly. Kagıtcıbası (2006) argues that “an attitude is attributed to an individual and it is a tendency that arranges in an orderly manner that individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in relation with a psychological object (as cited in: Kagıtcıbası (2006)). The concept of attitude is a core topic in social psychology.  However, it was found that students’ attitudes towards dynamics of learning in education increases their academic achievements (Pehlivan, 1994). The relationship between individual-object- stimulus and attitude are of such importance for vocational education since students’ attitudes towards their departments will reveal what kind of teaching behaviors they will adopt in the future. From this perspective, positive attitudes of pre-service teachers towards education are an important detail in terms of their teaching quality in the future (Ustüner, 2006). To put it differently, “Knowing attitudes towards a specific profession and its activities will certainly contribute to predict the success and satisfaction attained in the profession (Erkuş et al., 2000).

Therefore, it is of essential importance to measure attitudes at universities delivering vocational education and accordingly to apply some adjustments in terms of quality of education and efficiency of the process. Numerous attitude scales oriented at various dynamics in education have been developed both in our country and the world. “The Attitude Scale towards Music Theory Course” developed by Canakay (2006) consists of 37 items. Cronbach’s alpha internal coefficients of the scale were calculated as .96. “Piano Course Attitude Scale” developed by Tufan and Güdek (2008) consists of 30 items and Cronbach’s alpha internal coefficients of the scale was calculated as .97. The Scale developed by Ozevin (2010) towards “The Special Teaching Methods Course” in the music education undergraduate program includes 25 items. Cronbach’s coefficients alpha for complete scale was .95. Tyson (2006) RAP scale, measuring Rap-music attitude is a 24-item instrument. The 14 Likert-type attitude scale developed by Shaw and Tomcala (1976) aims to measure primary school students’ attitudes towards music. The objective of the present study is therefore to develop an attitude scale to measure pre-service music teachers’ attitudes towards special teaching methods course.

2. Methodology

Since the present study attempts to develop an Attitude Scale towards Special Teaching Methods Course, it is a descriptive research. The descriptive surveys intend “to explain the interaction among situations by considering their relationships between previous events and conditions” (Kaptan, 1998). 

2.1. Study Group The research consists of 388 pre-service music teachers enrolled in “Special Teaching Methods” course at the department of music education. The data of the research was obtained in the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The distribution of the study group is as follows:

30 (7.7%) pre-service music teachers from Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, 60( 15.5%) pre-service music teachers from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, 40 (10.3%) pre-service music teachers from Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, 52 (13.4%) pre-service music teachers from Dokuz Eylül University, 60 (15.5%) pre-service music teachers from Pamukkale University, 53 (13.7%) pre-service music teachers from Balıkesir University,  51 (13.1%) pre-service music teachers from Trakya University and 42 (10.8%) pre-service music teachers from Adnan Menderes University.

2.2. Selecting the Instrument for Data Collection

Before developing attitude scale items for measuring pre-service music teachers’ attitudes towards special teaching methods course, 39 pre-service music teachers enrolled in “Special Teaching Methods I” course at Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Fine Arts and Music Education Program were asked to write a composition entitled “Opinions and Thoughts on Special Teaching Methods Course”. After reviewing participants’ statements in the compositions and previously developed attitude scales (Berberoğlu, 1990; Kan and Akbaş, 2005; Arslan, 2006; Canakay, 2006; Karaca, 2006; Tufan and Güdek, 2008; Turanlı et al., 2008; Demir and Akengin, 2010; Ozevin, 2010; Turan and Demirel, 2010; Seker, 2011; Arslan, 2012) an initial item pool of 89 statements was formed. 2 experts in music education, 2 experts in educational sciences, 1 expert in Turkish Language and Education and 1 psychologist were consulted to review the item pool. Based on the experts’ feedbacks, items was rewritten by using more clear and simple language, and accordingly the scale was reduced to 76 items in total, including 19 negative items in the scale. The measurement tool was prepared by using 5 point Likert-type. Correspondingly, respondents’ answers were labelled as follows: “Strongly Agree”, “Agree”, “Agree Slightly”, “Disagree” and “Strongly Disagree”.

2.3. Data Collection

Data was obtained from eight universities. Permission was obtained from the universities in advance. Prior to the phase of the data collection, university instructors in the relevant field were informed about the process.

2.4. Data Analysis

In this study, an Attitude Scale for Special Teaching Methods Course was developed and then statistical analyses were performed. Before proceeding to further analysis, the missing values were examined. As a result, mean substitution was performed for the missing data in the dataset. Then outliers were analyzed and 2 participants with outliers were excluded from the study. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS Version 24. The tables presented in the study were taken form SPSS program. Lastly, the suitability of the sample size and normality assumptions were tested. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed to determine construct validity of the scale. Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient was calculated to figure out the reliability of the scale.

3. Findings

3.1. The Suitability of Data for Factor Analysis

Before running analysis on developing an Attitude Scale for Special Teaching Methods Course, the suitability of the data for factor analysis was determined by running the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity.

Results of the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity are shown in Table 1.

Table-1. KMO and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity

KMO and Bartlett’s Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin  0.97
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity Chi-Square 23076.33
sd 2850
p 0

As can be seen in Table 1, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was found to be 0.97. The result of the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was found statistically significant. Thus, we could contend that the sample size is appropriate for factor analysis.

3.2. Determining the Number of Factors

To determine the number of factors, the contribution of each variable to total variance and scree plot were analyzed. Scree plot for the analysis shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Scree plot for the analysis shown in.

Figure-1. Scree plot

After evaluating the contribution of each variable to total variance and scree plot, it was determined that the scale consisted of a single factor. As an extraction method, Principal Components Analysis was performed to determine the factor design of the scale.

3.3. Findings Regarding the Construct Validity of the Scale

Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to determine construct validity of the Attitude Scale for Special Teaching Methods Course. Accordingly, 18 items (numbered 3, 5, 6, 11, 13, 20, 25, 27, 30, 32, 37, 47, 49, 53, 54, 62, 65, 66) whose loadings are less than 0.40 for every factor were excluded from the analysis and the analyses on the remaining 58 items were rerun.

As a result of the analyses performed, a table of communalities indicating the percentage of explained common variance for each item is presented in Table 2.

Table-2. Communalities

Item Number  Common Variance Item Number Common Variance Item Number Common Variance Item Number Common Variance
t1 ,546 t22 ,505 t42 ,490 t61 ,515
t2 ,355 t23 ,465 t43 ,488 t63 ,480
t4 ,583 t24 ,374 t44 ,407 t64 ,368
t7 ,463 t26 ,535 t45 ,468 t67 ,395
t8 ,452 t28 ,499 t46 ,574 t68 ,397
t9 ,354 t29 ,512 t48 ,547 t69 ,363
t10 ,413 t31 ,483 t50 ,383 t70 ,503
t12 ,396 t33 ,619 t51 ,431 t71 ,580
t14 ,532 t34 ,602 t52 ,372 t72 ,634
t15 ,611 t35 ,562 t55 ,348 t73 ,541
t16 ,561 t36 ,570 t56 ,604 t74 ,600
t17 ,511 t38 ,605 t57 ,503 t75 ,433
t18 ,444 t39 ,641 t58 ,554 t76 ,479
t19 ,390 t40 ,569 t59 ,634    
t21 ,523 t41 ,606 t60 ,655    

According to Table 2, common factor variance of the factors on each variable was found to range from 0.348 to 0.655. As a result of the analysis performed, all potential factors and eigenvalues for the number of factors identified and the percentages of variance explained are tabulated in Table 3.

Table-3. Eigenvalues Associated With Factors and Percentages of Variance Explained

Component Values for All Potential Factors  Values for the Number of Factors Determined
Eigenvalue Percentages of Variance Explained Percentage of Total Variance Explained   Eigenvalue Percentages of Variance Explained Percentage of Total Variance Explained  
1 29,024 50,041 50,041 29,024 50,041 50,041
2 2,512 4,331 54,372      
3 1,595 2,749 57,122      
4 1,407 2,425 59,547      
5 1,169 2,015 61,562      
6 1,109 1,912 63,474      
7 1,019 1,756 65,230      
8 ,998 1,721 66,951      
9 ,866 1,494 68,445      
10 ,819 1,411 69,856      
11 ,787 1,357 71,213      
12 ,746 1,286 72,499      
13 ,734 1,266 73,765      
14 ,684 1,180 74,945      
15 ,651 1,122 76,066      
16 ,642 1,106 77,173      
17 ,616 1,062 78,235      
18 ,590 1,017 79,252      
19 ,570 ,983 80,235      
20 ,547 ,944 81,179      
21 ,530 ,913 82,093      
22 ,507 ,874 82,966      
23 ,491 ,847 83,813      
24 ,479 ,826 84,639      
25 ,471 ,813 85,452      
26 ,424 ,731 86,182      
27 ,410 ,707 86,889      
28 ,401 ,691 87,581      
29 ,390 ,673 88,254      
30 ,363 ,627 88,880      
31 ,360 ,621 89,501      
32 ,350 ,604 90,105      
33 ,343 ,591 90,696      
34 ,321 ,554 91,250      
35 ,307 ,529 91,779      
36 ,306 ,527 92,306      
37 ,297 ,511 92,817      
38 ,291 ,501 93,318      
39 ,279 ,481 93,799      
40 ,270 ,466 94,265      
41 ,254 ,439 94,703      
42 ,246 ,425 95,128      
43 ,244 ,420 95,548      
44 ,221 ,381 95,928      
45 ,219 ,378 96,307      
46 ,219 ,377 96,684      
47 ,209 ,359 97,043      
48 ,199 ,343 97,387      
49 ,194 ,335 97,721      
50 ,179 ,308 98,029      
51 ,170 ,293 98,322      
52 ,161 ,278 98,600      
53 ,156 ,268 98,869      
54 ,145 ,251 99,119      
55 ,137 ,236 99,355      
56 ,132 ,228 99,583      
57 ,125 ,216 99,799      
58 ,116 ,201 100,000      

As can be seen in Table 3, eigenvalue of the first factor is 29.024 and the contribution of the factor to the total variance is 50.041%. This means that the items in the scale explain 50% of the variance in the attitude scale towards special teaching methods course.

Factor loadings regarding the factor design of the scale are set forth in Table 4

Table-4. Factor Design of the Special Teaching Methods Course Attitude Scale

Item  Factor Loading Item  Factor Loading Item  Factor Loading Item  Factor Loading
t60 ,809 t40 ,754 t57 ,709 t44 ,638
t39 ,800 t35 ,750 t28 ,706 t68 ,630
t72 ,797 t16 ,749 t42 ,700 t12 ,629
t59 ,796 t58 ,744 t43 ,698 t67 ,628
t33 ,787 t48 ,739 t31 ,695 t19 ,625
t15 ,782 t1 ,739 t63 ,693 t50 ,619
t41 ,778 t73 ,736 t76 ,692 t24 ,612
t38 ,778 t26 ,731 t45 ,684 t52 ,610
t56 ,777 t14 ,729 t23 ,682 t64 ,607
t34 ,776 t21 ,723 t7 ,680 t69 ,602
t74 ,775 t61 ,717 t8 ,672 t2 ,596
t4 ,764 t29 ,716 t18 ,666 t9 ,595
t71 ,761 t17 ,715 t75 ,658 t55 ,589
t46 ,757 t22 ,710 t51 ,657    
t36 ,755 t70 ,710 t10 ,643    

Considering the data in Table 4, it is seen that factor loadings for all the items in the scale vary between 0.589- 0.809.

3.4. Findings Regarding the Reliability

Cronbach's coefficient alpha, a measure of the internal consistency, and item-total correlation coefficients were used to calculate the reliability of the scores obtained from the scale. Cronbach’s alpha internal coefficients of the scale was calculated as 0.983 (58 items) which shows that the reliability of the obtained scores are at the high level (Ozdamar, 2004). Item-total correlation coefficients of the items in the scale are presented in Table 5.

Table-5. Item- Total correlation test

Item  Correlation  Item  Correlation Item Correlation Item Correlation
t1 ,726 t22 ,697 t42 ,685 t61 ,705
t2 ,582 t23 ,668 t43 ,685 t63 ,681
t4 ,752 t24 ,606 t44 ,633 t64 ,600
t7 ,673 t26 ,718 t45 ,670 t67 ,623
t8 ,658 t28 ,693 t46 ,746 t68 ,616
t9 ,588 t29 ,702 t48 ,727 t69 ,597
t10 ,628 t31 ,681 t50 ,603 t70 ,696
t12 ,621 t33 ,774 t51 ,649 t71 ,747
t14 ,715 t34 ,760 t52 ,597 t72 ,785
t15 ,769 t35 ,734 t55 ,574 t73 ,719
t16 ,733 t36 ,741 t56 ,762 t74 ,762
t17 ,699 t38 ,764 t57 ,694 t75 ,641
t18 ,653 t39 ,786 t58 ,728 t76 ,685
t19 ,608 t40 ,740 t59 ,786    
t21 ,710 t41 ,764 t60 ,796    

Further analysis of the Table 5 shows that item-total correlation coefficients of the items in the scale range between 0.574-0.796.

Overall findings demonstrated that this scale had high validity and reliability scores and that it may be used as a valid and reliable instrument for further studies. Furthermore, the scale can be administrated to different groups, and after then additional validity and reliability evidences can be collected.

4. Result

In the present study, a valid and reliable measurement tool was developed to identify pre-service music teachers’ attitudes towards special teaching methods course. 39 pre-service music teachers enrolled in “Special Teaching Methods Course I” at Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Fine Arts and Music Education Program during the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year were asked to write a composition entitled “Opinions and Thoughts on Special Teaching Methods Course”. After students’ statements in the compositions as well as previously developed attitude scales in the literature were taken into account, 89-item pool was formed. 2 experts in music education, 2 experts in educational sciences, 1 expert in Turkish Language and Education and 1 psychologist were consulted to review the item pool. Experts submitted their views to the researcher as regards to whether each item measures one behavior, written in a clear and open way and measures attitude components appropriately. Based on the expert opinions, necessary additions, omissions and revisions were made and scale pool was reduced to 76 items. The final measurement tool was administrated to 388 students (3th grade and senior class)  enrolled in “Special Teaching Methods Course” at the department of music education of eight universities (Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University , Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Dokuz Eylül University, Pamukkale University, Balıkesir University, Trakya University and Adnan Menderes University).

Before proceeding to further analysis, the missing values were examined. As a result, mean substitution was performed for the missing data in the dataset. Then outliers were analyzed and 2 participants with outliers were excluded from the study. Lastly, the suitability of the sample size and normality assumptions were tested. Before running analysis on developing an Attitude Scale for Special Teaching Methods Course, the suitability of the data for factor analysis was determined by running the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was found to be 0.97. The result of the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was statistically significant.

As well as determining the number of factors in the scale, the contribution of each component to total variance was analyzed through scree plot. After further analysis of the scree plot, it was determined that the scale consisted of a single factor. As an extraction method, Principal Components Analysis was performed to determine the factor design of the scale.

As a result of the Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) performed to figure out construct validity of the scale, 18 items (numbered 3, 5, 6, 11, 13, 20, 25, 27, 30, 32, 37, 47, 49, 53, 54, 62, 65, 66) whose loadings are less than 0.40 for every factor were excluded from the analysis and the analyses were repeated for the remaining 58 items. Accordingly, eigenvalue of the first factor is 29.024 and the contribution of the factor to the total variance is 50.041%.

Cronbach's coefficient alpha, a measure of the internal consistency, and item-total correlation coefficients were used to calculate the reliability of the scale. Cronbach’s alpha internal coefficients of the scale were calculated as 0.983. It was found that item-total correlation coefficients regarding the scale items varied between 0.57 and 0.79. The results show that the Pre-service Music Teachers’ 58-item Attitude Scale towards Special Teaching Methods Course meets the validity and reliability criteria, and consequently can be utilized as a measurement scale for further studies.

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