Adaptation of the Scale of Attitude towards Postgraduate Education into Turkish Culture and Examination of its Psychometric Properties

İlhan İLTER

doi:10.17051/ilkonline.2019.527218

Abstract
This study aimed to adapt the Scale of Attitude towards Postgraduate Education (SATPGE) developed by Ng, Tuckett, Fox-Young and Kain (2014a) into Turkish culture by ensuring the structural validity and reliability of the scale in order to measure postgraduate students attitudes to postgraduate education. The study group consisted of 560 students who were registered to postgraduate education (i.e. PhD or Masters) at University of Kahramanmaraş Sutçu Imam in Turkey. The programs SPSS 21.0 package and LISREL 8.7 were used to check the validity and reliability. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to examine the validity of the model of the Turkish form of the SATPGE. The EFA results showed that a three-subscale 13-item instrument accounted for 55.12% of total variance explained. The subscales of the SATPGE were Facilitator roles, Professional recognition and Obstacle factors. The CFA results showed that three subscales for 13 items had a goodness of model fit (The fit indices of the model were: χ2 = 194, 67, df=62, χ2 /df= 3.13, RMSEA=0.069, S-RMR=0.051, GFI=0.93, AGFI=0.92, CFI=0.94, IFI=0.96, NNFI=0.92, NFI=0.91). Cronbach's alpha indicated that the internal consistency reliability of the scale was .84, and the test-retest reliability was found to be .82. In Turkey, a psychometric instrument is needed to measure the postgraduate students attitudes towards postgraduate education. Hence, in this study it is expected that the adapted scale will ensure the first step in psychometric response to this need by providing new models and suggestions to the relevant literature.

Key words: Higher Education, postgraduate education, attitude, validity and reliability

Indexing

How to cite this article

	Open Access and Peer-reviewed
Home Journal Issues Guide for Authors Editorial Board Aims & Scope About Journal News & Announcements

ABOUT JOURNAL About Publisher Contact Us Editorial & Peer Review Process	POLICIES Privacy Policy Editorial Policy Author's Rights and Obligations Conflict of Interest Policy Plagiarism Policy Advertising Policy	STATEMENTS Terms of Use Author's Rights and Obligations Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement Protection of Research Participants (Statement On Human And Animal Rights) License Information