Development of the inclusive education attitude scale for fourth grade students in primary school

Inclusive education focuses on individuals with differences in terms of language, ethnicity, gender, economic level, and special needs. These differences have disadvantages and can lead to exclusion. This situation prevents individuals who are different from getting a quality education in the classrooms. All individuals deserve a quality education that can meet their needs. The educational approach that will ensure that students with individual differences receive a quality education is inclusive education. The aim of this research is to develop a scale whose reliability and validity has been tested to measure the inclusive education attitudes of primary school students in a multidimensional way. First, expert opinion was sought to test the validity of the scale. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were performed for construct validity. The data of the Exploratory Factor Analysis Group were obtained from a total of 234 4th grade students in Gaziantep. As a result of the Exploratory Factor Analysis, a five-factor structure consisting of 21 items was reached. These factor structures were named as "economic level", "migration and ethnicity", "language", "special needs" and "gender". The cronbach alpha values of the resulting factor structures were calculated as ".784, .680, .656, .607, .602", respectively. In the confirmatory factor analysis phase of the implementation, the factor structures that emerged as a result of EFA were tested. The data of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis Group were obtained from a total of 221 4th grade students in Gaziantep. Structural equation modeling was created and fit indices were checked. according to these fit indices; CNMI/DF, IFI, AGFI, RMSEA and RMR values showed excellent agreement, while GFI, CFI and NNFI/TLI values showed acceptable agreement. After the modification, there was no non-conforming value and the confirmatory factor analysis stage was carried out successfully. Based on all this information, it can be said that the reliability and validity of this scale study, which was conducted to measure primary school students' inclusive education attitudes, has been proven. This scale can be used to measure the inclusive education attitudes of students in primary schools to be used in scientific studies.