Development of Problem Solving Confidence Questionnaire: Study of Validation and Reliability [PDF]

This study aimed to develop and validate a problem solving confidence questionnaire which would help teachers, instructors, and researchers to have better understanding of problem solving confidence of students. The participants of this scale were 950 undergraduate science and engineering students enrolled in the Introductory Calculus Based Physics. The development of the scale included the following three steps; item formulation, content validation and reliability calculation. The scale has 20 items allocated to two factors: (1) High Confidence; (2) Low Confidence. The scale items had a factor loading of at least .40. The results of the factor analysis revealed that the scale accounted for the 57.32% of the total variance. The alpha reliability coefficient was .92. According to these findings, the Problem Solving Confidence Questionnaire (PSCQ) is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in the field of engineering and science education.