Development of the data literacy scale in social sciences: A validity and reliability study
The present study will provide important information for future educational strategies and intervention programs by revealing the current status of undergraduate students in data literacy. The current research is a scale development study. The study group consisted of undergraduate students from 20 universities in Türkiye. Data validity and construct analysis were performed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Whereas the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) value of 0.967 indicated that the sample was perfect, Bartlett’s test confirmed that the correlations between the items were adequate. Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.973 indicated a very high internal consistency. Furthermore, high reliability was provided with the inter-form correlation of 0.853, the Spearman-Brown coefficient of 0.920, and the Guttman split-half coefficient of 0.919. The exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale consisted of three sub-dimensions and explained 64.056% of the total variance. The items showed factor loadings above 0.40. The CFA results confirmed that the model represented the three sub-dimensions of data literacy well, and the RMSEA, CFI, IFI, and RFI fit indices were high. Compared with the available scales in the literature, this study makes a significant contribution by presenting a customized, comprehensive measurement tool in the context of the social sciences.
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Article Information
- Article Type Research Articles
- Submitted January 25, 2026
- Accepted February 22, 2026
- Published March 30, 2026
- Issue Vol. 5 No. 1 (2026): Pedagogical Perspective (March)
- Section Research Articles
