Evaluation of Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey

The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) is a widely used instrument designed to measure student attitudes toward physics and learning physics. Previous research revealed a fairly complex factor structure. In this study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on data from an undergraduate introductory physics course ($n=3844$) to determine whether a more parsimonious factor structure exists. Exploratory factor analysis results indicate that many of the items from the original CLASS have poor psychometric properties and could not be used in a revised factor structure. The cross validation showed acceptable fit statistics for a three factor model found in the exploratory factor analysis. This research suggests that a more optimum measurement of students’ attitudes about physics and learning physics is obtained with a 15-item instrument, which describes the factors of personal application, personal effort, and problem solving. The proposed revised version of the CLASS offers researchers the opportunity to test a shortened version of the instrument that may be able to provide information about students’ attitudes in the areas of personal application of physics, personal effort in a physics course, and approaches to problem solving.

Figure 1

Unstandardized factor loadings and covariances for confirmatory factor model. (Standardized factor loadings and correlations are listed after the slash.) “Personal Application” denotes factor 1; “Problem Solving” denotes factor 2; and “Personal Effort” denotes factor 3. **p < .01. ***p < .001.