Assessing climate change skepticism among Indonesian preservice science teachers using Rasch analysis

Limited evidence on climate change skepticism among pre-service science teachers may constrain efforts to design targeted teacher education programs for climate change education. To address this gap, this study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the adapted Indonesian version of the Climate Change Skepticism Questionnaire (CCS-Q) and to evaluate climate change skepticism among pre-service science teachers in Indonesia. A simple random sample of 1,126 pre-service science teachers from faculty of education in Indonesian higher education institutions participated in the study. The data were analyzed using Rasch analysis. The adapted CCS-Q demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties, with Rasch analysis confirming both the validity and reliability of the instrument. Most participants (761 pre-service science teachers) were clustered around the zero logits, indicating an average level of skepticism. Most items were classified as moderate based on logits values. The results of the Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis revealed no evidence of gender bias in the CCS-Q items. Assessing climate change skepticism among pre-service science teachers provides an important initial step in evaluating their knowledge before they begin teaching climate change topics in the classroom context.