Distance education of secondary school students mathematics course satisfaction: A scale development study

In face-to-face math lessons, students have a lot of difficulty understanding the topics. With the transition to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the whole world, it has been observed that students have even more difficulty understanding the subjects in mathematics class compared to face-to-face education. In this context, this study aimed to develop a scale to measure the mathematics course satisfaction of secondary school students through distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The general screening model was used in the research. After conducting a literature review on the subject, an item pool consisting of 104 items was created. The item pool has been converted into a draft scale consisting of 52 items with expert opinions and pilot applications. Data were obtained from 233 students in Balıkesir province for the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the draft scale form prepared on the Google Forms platform. As a result of the EFA conducted, a scale consisting of four factors and 12 items was obtained that explains 66.7% of the total variance. The four factors that emerged as a result of AFA were named as negative opinions, willingness, satisfaction, and ability to use technology. Scale for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) New data was obtained from 538 students in Balıkesir province using Google Forms. As a result of the DFA performed, the χ2/df value of the scale was found to be 3.580, the RMSEA value was 0.069, the GFI value was 0.952, the AGFI value was 0.919, the CFI value was 0.941, the NFI value was 0.920, the IFI value was 0.941, and the SRMR value was 0.069. The Cronbach Alpha value of the scale was calculated between 0.750 and 0.750, and the Cronbach Alpha value of the sub-factors was calculated between 0.606-0.858. As a result, a valid and reliable five-point Likert-type scale consisting of four factors and 12 items has been developed to determine the mathematics course satisfaction of middle school students through distance education.