The Development of Paranormal Belief Scale (PBS) for Science Education in the Context of Turkey

Abstract

Present study aims to translate and develop Paranormal Belief Questions (Rice, 2003) measuring studentsâ non-scientific beliefs which threat science education. Original version of these questions was asked in Southern Focus Poll (1998). 17 questions about paranormal beliefs were administered to 114 university students from different departments. After translating and developing Paranormal Belief Questions into Turkish, factor analysis was conducted and paranormal beliefs were limited in two dimensions as classical paranormal beliefs and religious paranormal beliefs as parallel with original form. Déjà vu item that is not consistent with other paranormal beliefs was removed depending on the factor analysis. The results of the current study enable to differentiate scientific beliefs from non-scientific beliefs of students. By this way, science educators can benefit from this scale.