Examination of adaptation Of The Academic Optimism Scale into Turkish

In this research, Academic Optimism Scale School and Teacher Forms developed by Hoy et al. (2006?2009) was adapted into Turkish. First, Academic Optimism Scale consisting of 41 items was translated into Turkish. In order to test equivalence of translation, Turkish Forms and English version of scales whose certain items have been amended on the basis of judges? opinions were administered to 50 students who were attending 4th grade at Department of English Language Teaching in Gazi University. Validity and reliability studies were conducted on the data obtained by the teachers working at state primary education schools in central province and districts of Kastamonu during 2009?2011 academic years. Three study groups were employed in this study. Elementary school teachers included in these groups are generally same persons. First group consists of 650 elementary school teachers, 350 of whom are men and 300 of them are women and their period changes between 3 years and 28 years. Second group consists of 224 form teachers, 115 of whom are men and 109 of them are women and their service period of service changed between 8 years and 26 years. Third group consists of 653 form teachers, 341 of whom are men and 312 of them are women and period of service changed between 3 years and 38 years. In addition to these groups, scales were also administered to 50 teachers twice in two weeks interval to perform test-retest reliability study. 25 of class teachers participating to this study were men and 25 of them are women and their service period changes between 1 year and 15 years.SPSS 18, Lisrel 8.80 and Factor 8.02 package programs were used during analysis of data. In order to examine reliability of measurements obtained from Academic Optimism Scale School and Teacher Forms, test-rest and internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) coefficients were calculated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed in the scope of construct validity study. Additionally, relations between Optimism, Interpersonal Self-Efficacy, Anger and Shyness Scales and Academic Optimism Scale were tested in the scope of convergent and discriminants validity.Test-retest reliability coefficients were between .80 and .96. On the basis of measurements obtained from three different administrations, internal consistency coefficients of Academic Optimism Scale School Form (Cronbach alpha) is obtained between .06 and .46 for self-efficacy, -.12 and .46 for faculty trust, .00 and .50 for academic emphasis. Total internal consistency coefficient of School Form is between .40 and .63. Internal consistency of Academic Optimism Scale Teacher Form is obtained between .08 and .40 for self-efficacy, -.03 and .39 for faculty trust and .12 and .26 for academic emphasis. Internal consistent coefficient for the whole form is between .02 and .47.Equivalence of measurements obtained from Turkish version of Academic Optimism Scale School and Teacher Form with theoretical structure is analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analyses. Median of goodness of fit indexes is ?2: 48.96, sd: 41, CFI: .71, GFI: .96, AGFI: .94 and RMSEA: .03 for Teacher Form; and ?2: 580.52, sd: 402, CFI: .16, GFI: .68, AGFI: .63 and RMSEA: .07 for School Form. The fact that the factor structure of the scale might be different for Turkish culture is considered as a reason for low goodness of fit indexes remaining under acceptable limits. For this reason, KMO value, obtained as a result of exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation performed for each of three groups, was calculated as .49 and .61 for Teacher Form and .00 and .82 for School Form. At the end of this study during which factor number is identified by means of parallel analysis method, one factor was found for Teacher Form at the end of first application and two factors are identified at the end of second application; whereas these figures are calculated as five factors and eight factors for School Form, obtained at the end of first and third applications respectively. Any meaningful pattern complying with theoretical structure wasn?t obtained when factor loadings were analyzed. Besides, in the scope of convergent validity, Pearson correlations between Optimism, Interpersonal Self-Efficacy Scales and Academic Optimism Scale School Form were obtained between -.43 and .19; whereas this value was calculated between -.21 and .34 regarding the correlation between Optimism, Interpersonal Self-Efficacy Scale and Teacher Form in the scope of discriminant validity. The correlation between Anger, Shyness Scales and Academic Optimism Scale School Form applied was found between -0.19 and .22; whereas this value was calculated between -.08 and .42 regarding the correlation between Anger, Shyness Scales and Academic Optimism Scale Teacher Form.In sum, these results, items of Academic Optimism Scale should be revised and item numbers of teachers form should be increased.