The Development of Laboratory Safety Questionnaire for Middle School Science Teachers

The purpose of this paper is to develop a “valid and reliable laboratory safety questionnaire” which could be used to identify scienceteachers’ understanding about laboratory safety issues during their science laboratory activities. The questionnaire was developedfrom a literature review and prior instruments developed on laboratory safety issues. To address content validity, the questionnaire wasexamined by experts from the field of science education. The questionnaire consists of 36 Likert-type items related to chemicals, usageof glassware equipment, fire and electrical control, personal protection, biological hazards, and emergency. The study was carried outwith 127 teachers who have experience in science laboratories and work in middle schools in Turkey. The instrument was found to beinternally consistent with high reliability scores. Significance value shows that the data come from a multivariate normal distribution andare suitable for factor analysis. The factor analysis indicates that the items in the questionnaire accumulate around a single dimensionnamed as safety issues. The results provide evidence that the instrument is valid for further implementation on a wider scale and inlarger samples. The results of this study showed that the questionnaire has an appropriate scale to determine the middle school scienceteachers’ understanding toward laboratory safety issues.KEY WORDS: laboratory safety questionnaire; validity; reliability; middle school science teachers