International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, vol.2, no.2, pp.107-115, 2014 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
The present study aims to translate and develop Paranormal Belief Questions (Rice, 2003) measuring students' non-scientific beliefs that threaten science education. The original version of these questions was asked in the 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 to two dimensions classical paranormal beliefs and religious paranormal beliefs as parallel with the original form. Dejavu item that is not consistent with other paranormal beliefs was removed depending on the factor analysis. The results of the current study enable us to differentiate scientific beliefs from non-scientific beliefs of students. In this way, science educators can benefit from this scale.