Turkish adaptation of the scale of “student perceptions of teachers’ knowledge (SPOTK)” and examining in the aspect of some variables

In this study, it was aimed to adapt the scale of “Student Perceptions of Teachers’ Knowledge (SPOTK)” to Turkish and to examine students’ perceptions about their teachers’ knowledge in the aspect of some variables such as socio-economic status, gender and age. The KMO coefficient was found as 0,926 and the Bartlett Sphericity test was found (χ²=3639,993) significant (p<0,000) which indicate the current data is adequate for performing factor analysis. For factor analysis, Principal Component Analysis was performed and the Varimax Rotation was employed. Then, the items which have factor loadings lower than 0,40 were deleted from the current scale as Tuan et al. (2000) did. After the initial factor analysis, there were 5 dimensions that have Eigenvalues over 1 and explain 50,05% of the variance in the scale. Ten items were deleted from the scale because of their lower factor loadings (lower than 0,40) and lower communalities values. After the deletion of these items, factor analysis showed there were 4 dimensions in the scale that have Eigenvalues over 1 and explain 54,04% of the variance in the scale. In the dimension of “knowledge of student understanding”, six items remained which explained 17,68% of the variance and have factor loadings varying between 0,631 and 0,736. In the dimension of “instructional repertoire”, five items remained which explained 16,577% of the variance and have factor loadings varying between 0,554 and 0,743. In the dimension of “representational repertoire”, three items remained which explained 10,360% of the variance and have factor loadings varying between 0,562 and 0,818. In the dimension of “subject matter knowledge”, four items remained which explained 9,935% of the variance and have factor loadings varying between 0,493 and 0,682.