Teaching spatial thinking through geography disposition inventory: a validity and reliability study on its Turkish adaptation

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In this study, it was aimed to determine the validity and reliability of “Teaching Spatial Thinking through Geography Disposition Inventory”, developed by (Jo Bednarz, 2014b), in Turkey. The 5- point Likert-type inventory consisting of 40 items was applied voluntarily to a total of 1170 preservice geography teachers in nine public universities in the 2018-2019 academic year. A number of studies were conducted on the validity and reliability of the inventory. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were carried out for the construct validity. The data from 590 and 587 preservice geography teachers were used for EFA and CFA, respectively. Expert opinion was obtained for the concept validity. As a result of the analyzes, 17 items were removed from the inventory. The results showed that the 23-item inventory was consistent with the original five- factor structure and the data. For the reliability of the inventory, the internal consistency coefficients of the whole inventory and its sub-dimensions were checked. Accordingly, the Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficient was found to be .89 for the whole inventory; .79 for the sub-dimension of the explicit teaching of spatial concepts; .79 for the sub-dimension of teaching spatial thinking skills; .75 for the sub-dimension of spatial thinking in geography; .73 for the sub-dimension of the use of spatial representations and spatial technologies; and .62 for the sub-dimension of teaching thinking skills. The results obtained via the Test-Retest Reliability method indicated that the inventory had a stable structure. In light of these findings, the “Spatial Thinking Inventory in Geography Teaching” leads to a valid and reliable measurement in Turkish culture. Furthermore, according to the study, the increase in the scores obtained from the inventory means the preservice teachers have high tendency to teach spatial thinking in geography teaching, while the low scores point to preservice teachers low tendency in this scope.

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Geography , spatial thinking inventory , inventory adaptation , validity and reliability

Aegean Geographical Journal

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Aegean Geographical Journal