Revision of the Education Programs for Talented Students Evaluations Student Form (EPTS-ESF) and its psychometric properties

The purpose of this study was to revise and investigate the psychometric properties of the Education Program for Talented Students Evaluations Student Form (EPTS-ESF). Considering the student density in Turkey, the study involved nine different Science and Art Centers (SAC) from seven different cities. The data from 319 of these participants were evaluated, in which 6th, 7th and 8th graders constituted the dataset. EPTS-ESF, which was revised in the current study, is currently being used in Education Programs for Talented Students (EPTS) to address student perspectives and satisfaction (Sak, 2011a, 2013). While revising the scale; education program standards of NAGC, program dimensions modifications of Maker Model and Integrated Curriculum Model of VanTassel-Baska are integrated. Using these standards and models, 58 items were sheltered under five dimensions. The dimension of "purposes" was added to the current form through expert opinions and piloting. Dimensions were organized as purposes, content, process, product/evaluation, learning environment and teacher. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted for construct validity. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used for factor extraction. Internal consistency coefficient (alpha) was identified as 0.96. The coefficient was 0,97 after six items were deleted. As a result of the analysis with 55 items, 13 components with eigenvalues over 1 were detected. These components explained 63,519% of the variance. However, it was observed that the first factor explained 33,364% of the variance on its own. In addition, as most items had acceptable loadings under the first factor, a single-factor structure was forced. Considering the sample size, items with loadings less than 0,40 were eliminated. The final form involved 49 items after the analysis. Principal components analysis was conducted again and the one-factor structure revealed an eigenvalue of 17,945 with a total variance of 36,662%. It was found that the internal consistency of the EPTS-ESF was excellent. However, factor analysis did not support the expected structure at the inception. That is, a single-factor structure was more plausible. In this regard, encountering with a unidimensional structure instead of a six-dimension structure was beyond the researcher's expectation. In short, a single-factor and holistic scale with 49 items was revealed which can be used to evaluate educational programs addressing the gifted students. Keywords: education programs, gifted education, program evaluation, student evaluation form