A Scale Development Study Determining the Attitudes of Secondary School Students towards Distance Education of Mathematics

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to develop a scale that determines the attitudes of secondary school students towards distance mathematics education, and to examine the attitudes of the students by certain variables. The study included 271 secondary school students studying in Sivas province during the 2020-2021 academic year. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on the data obtained from the scale to examine the psychometric structure of the scale. A t-test and an analysis of variance were performed to determine the differences among secondary school students' attitudes towards distance education in mathematics by gender, school type, and grade level. It was found that the attitudes of secondary school students towards receiving distance mathematics education were negative. Gender does not constitute a significant difference in the attitude scores of secondary school students towards receiving distance mathematics education. In terms of the type of school in which students studied, a significant difference was found in favor of public schools in secondary school students' attitude scores towards distance mathematics education. In terms of grade levels, a statistically significant difference was found in favor of the 5th, 6th, and 7th grades regarding their attitudes towards distance mathematics education, among 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students.