Water awareness scale for pre-service science teachers: Validity and reliability study

The role of teachers in the formation of environmentally sensitive behaviors in students is quite high. Thus, the water awareness of teachers, who represent role models for students, is rather important. The main purpose of this study is to identify the reliability and validity study outcomes of the Water Awareness Scale, which was developed to determine the water awareness of pre-service science teachers. The study sample consists of 246 undergraduate senior class pre-service science teachers, who are educated as science teachers in different universities. Expert opinions were obtained for the content validity of the scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to ensure the construct validity. As a result of the factor analysis, it has been demonstrated that the scale is centered around 11 items and 3 factors. The variance explained by the total scale is 59.023%, and Cronbach’s alpha is .81. As a result, the scale has a valid and reliable structure. Key words: Water awareness, scale, validity, reliability, pre-service science teachers.