A Validity and Reliability Assessment of the Persian Version of Maryland Physics Expectations Survey: Using a Polytomous Item Response Theory Model

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Maryland Physics Expectations QuestionnaireSurvery, which is one of the most widely used instruments forto measuringe attitudes and expectations in the physics course. This is an applied research and its statistical population is consists of Iranian students who take had taken physics lessons in high school. The sample was included 423 high school students (197 girls males and 226 boysfemales) in from both the Experimentalthe science Sciences and mMathematics-Physicsal course fields of study in the academic yearduring 1399-13992019-20 . A cConfirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the factor structure, and while the IRT theory’s graded-response model in IRT theory was used to analyze the items of this questionnaire. The LISREL and IRTPro softwares were used to analyze the data. The content validity of the scale was 0.93 and the reliability coefficient of each factor of the questionnaire was between 0.74 and 0.89. The fFactor analysis confirmed the structures predicted in the original questionnaire., In addition, and the questionnaire items, while having a suitable fit with the polytomous model of the graded response, the questionnaire items had the desired discriminant parameters and thresholds. The researcher recommends the use of the Persian version of this questionnaire to explore expectations and attitudes about physics.

Keywords

• physics education
• physics attitudes
• the mpex questionnaire
• graded response model
• validity study
• reliability study