A validation and reliability study of community service activities scale in Turkey: A social evaluation

The purpose of this study is to test the reliability and validity of Community Service Activities Scale (CSAS) developed by Demir, Kaya and Tasdan (2012) with a view to identify perceptions of Faculty of Education students regarding community service activities. The participants of the study are 313 randomly chosen students who attend six different departments in Faculty of Education, Kafkas University. The data were analysed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to enhance the construct validity. Internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha) co-efficiency was evaluated for the reliability of the instrument. A 33-item instrument with “Thinking Processes and Skills”, “Awareness” and “Benefit” subscales was developed as a result of the analyses conducted. Cronbach Alpha internal consistency co-efficiency that explains 55,046 % of the total variance was found .93, .90 for the first factor, .92 for the second factor and .73 for the third factor. Some fit statistics calculated with the same analysis are: (X2/df)= 2,54; RMSEA= 0,070; RMR= 0,085; GFI= 0,81; AGFI= 0,78; NNFI= 0,97; NFI= 0,96; CFI= 0,98.