Toward making the invisible visible using a scale: prospective teachers' thoughts and affective reactions to feedback

This paper presents the development and initial validation of a feedback scale which measures the thoughts and affective reactions of prospective teachers concerning feedback on their teaching experiences. To reach this goal, data from 512 prospective teachers were used to test the internal consistency, exploratory and confirmative factor structure. While exploratory factor analysis was conducted on a random split-half sample of the data to examine the factor structure of the feedback scale items, confirmative factor analysis was conducted in the holdout sample. As a result of these analyses, it has been determined that the scale showed good validity and it has a structure composed of two factors; professional development and anxiety. Also, the reliability of these sub-factors of scale scores was found to be highly reliable. Overall, results suggest that this scale is a valid measurement that should reveal the viewpoints of prospective teachers regarding feedback in the form of observable behaviours for future research.     

The desire for longevity: Development of the Personal Longevity Scale

ABSTRACT

A new psychometrically acceptable measure of the desire to live a very long life was devised using two samples. In Study 1, initial exploratory analyses of the Personal Longevity Scale (PLS) scale revealed a two-factor structure. The Hope factor represents the hopefulness participants have with regards to their expectations about personal longevity. The second factor, Dread, represents the fear and uneasiness associated with self-perceptions of living a very long life. In Study 2, the bidimensional nature of the PLS measure was confirmed, and the scale was further refined to include a final of seven items. Four items represent Hope (α = .85), and three items represent Dread (α = .78). Theoretical rationales for the two-factor structure of personal longevity are discussed. In Study 3, the PLS was compared to three similar measures of attitudes about aging. The results indicate that the PLS has moderate levels of convergent and discriminant validity. Potential uses for the new scale are discussed.     

Construct Validity and Reliability of the Finnish Version of the Demand-Control Questionnaire in Two Samples of 1028 Teachers and 630 Nurses

The job demand-control (JDC) model has dominated research into occupational stress for the last 20 years. Two concepts lie at the core of the demand-control model: job demands and job control. Control is also referred to as decision latitude and the concept has two facets: decision authority and skill discretion. The purpose of the current study was to conduct an empirically correct specification of the key concepts of the JDC model. The Scandinavian version of an instrument assessing the key concepts of the model was used and the objective of the study was to test the validity and reliability of the Finnish version of the job content questionnaire (JCQ) among teachers and nurses. Altogether 1028 teachers and 630 nurses participated. Exploratory factor and confirmatory analyses were employed to assess the factorial structure of the Finnish version of the JCQ and to evaluate which factorial model fitted the data best. Analyses indicated a factor solution with two factors: job demands and decision authority. The confirmatory factor analyses supported the results from the exploratory factor analyses. The model which fitted the data best was the model with two oblique factors with the items measuring skill discretion removed. Based on the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses it seems reasonable to measure job demands and control in this sample with two factors: demand and decision authority.     

Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education: A Commentary

The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales—III has been frequently used to measure the family environment. Although some data exist attesting to the reliability and validity of FACES-III data, the underlying factor structure of the instrument has not been assessed using a confirmatory methodology. The present research used data from a sample of 922 families with children having disabilities to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis. Results suggest that the structure of the instrument proposed by the author did not provide an acceptable fit to the data. Post-hoc model fitting identified 3-Factor solutions for the Actual and Ideal Scales as superior based on fit statistics and replication. The Cohesion Scale as originally proposed by the authors of the instrument remained intact. The original Adaptability Scale was divided into two scales, Adaptability, which focused on change in leadership and rules within the family, and Discipline and Control which targeted the role of children in the family system. The present results are consistent with challenges to the adaptability scale, and supports other exploratory analyses of the instrument.     

A Psychometric Investigation of the FACES-III: Confirmatory Factor Analysis with Replication

The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales—III has been frequently used to measure the family environment. Although some data exist attesting to the reliability and validity of FACES-III data, the underlying factor structure of the instrument has not been assessed using a confirmatory methodology. The present research used data from a sample of 922 families with children having disabilities to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis. Results suggest that the structure of the instrument proposed by the author did not provide an acceptable fit to the data. Post-hoc model fitting identified 3-Factor solutions for the Actual and Ideal Scales as superior based on fit statistics and replication. The Cohesion Scale as originally proposed by the authors of the instrument remained intact. The original Adaptability Scale was divided into two scales, Adaptability, which focused on change in leadership and rules within the family, and Discipline and Control which targeted the role of children in the family system. The present results are consistent with challenges to the adaptability scale, and supports other exploratory analyses of the instrument.     

Development and validation of the sources of parental anxiety in children’s education scale

Parental anxiety in children’s education is closely related to children’s developmental and educational outcomes. The current study reported the development and validation of a self-report instrument to evaluate the Sources of Parental Anxiety in Children’s Education (SPACEs). Qualitative analyses suggested that the construct of parental anxiety in children’s education was multidimensional, representing learning performance anxiety, educational environment anxiety, educational input anxiety, and educational outcome anxiety as four primary sources. The results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported this four-factor structure comprising 17 items to capture this multidimensional construct. The scale also demonstrated adequate internal consistencies, convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and test-retest reliability. A series of multi-group tests across age, locality, and children’s grades provided evidence of measurement invariance. Overall, the SPACE scale appear to be a reliable and valid tool to measure educational anxiety in parents in the Chinese context.     

Measuring twenty-first century skills: development and validation of a scale for in-service and pre-service teachers

A self-report scale that measures teachers’ confidence in teaching students about twenty-first century skills was developed and validated with pre-service and in-service teachers. First, 16 items were created to measure teaching confidence in six areas: information literacy, collaboration, communication, innovation and creativity, problem solving, and responsible citizenship. Then, the items were tested in two groups of pre-service teachers and two groups of in-service teachers respectively. Exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the scale’s validity and reliability. The analyses identified a three-construct scale including innovation and problem solving, collaboration, and utility of technology for pre-service teachers and a one-dimension scale, cross-functional skills, for in-service teachers. This study suggests that different scales should be used to measure in-service teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ confidence in teaching twenty-first century skills.     

大学生民族认同量表的编制

基于社会认同理论和个体认同发展理论,借鉴国内外相关问卷,编制了民族认同量表。以1101名不同民族的大学生为被试,采用探索性因素分析、验证性因素分析等方法对量表的信度、效度进行了检验。本量表由三个维度构成,即探索、肯定和确认,相关指标表明量表具有较好的信度、效度,很好地测量了民族认同一般、核心的成分,可以比较不同民族成员对其所属民族的认同状况,本量表可以用来测量不同民族大学生的民族认同。     

Procrastination,conscientiousness, anxiety,and goals: Exploring the measurement and correlates of procrastination among school‐aged children

We explore the reliability and validity of a self‐report measure of procrastination and conscientiousness designed for use with third‐ to fifth‐grade students. The responses of 120 students are compared with teacher and parent ratings of the student. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were also used to examine the structure of the scale. Procrastination and conscientiousness are highly correlated (inversely); evidence suggests that procrastination and conscientiousness are aspects of the same construct. Procrastination and conscientiousness are correlated with the Physiological Anxiety subscale of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and with the Task (Mastery) and Avoidance (Task Aversiveness) subscales of Skaalvik's (1997) Goal Orientation Scales. Both theoretical implications and implications for interventions are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Development of the human interaction dimension of the Self‐Regulated Learning Questionnaire in asynchronous online learning environments

Two studies focusing on the development and validation of the Online Self‐Regulated Learning Inventory (OSRLI) were conducted. The OSRLI is a self‐report instrument assessing the human interaction dimension of online self‐regulated learning. It consists of an affect/motivation scale and an interaction strategies scale. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis of an initial affect/motivation item pool yielded four factors: enjoyment of human interaction, self‐efficacy for interaction with instructors, concern for interaction with students, and self‐efficacy for contributing to the online community. Exploratory factor analysis of an initial learning strategies item pool revealed three factors: writing strategies, responding strategies, and reflection strategies. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the stability of multidimensional factor structures. These exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed the OSRLI to be statistically moderate in terms of reliability and validity.     

Measuring student graduateness: reliability and construct validity of the Graduate Skills and Attributes Scale

This study reports the development and validation of the Graduate Skills and Attributes Scale which was initially administered to a random sample of 272 third-year-level and postgraduate-level, distance-learning higher education students. The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis. In a second study, the scale was administered to a stratified proportional random sample of 1102 early-career, undergraduate open distance-learning higher education students in the economic and management sciences field. The data were analysed using confirmatory factor and Rasch analyses. The structural validity and reliability of the scale were confirmed by the results. Educators and learning and development practitioners may be able to use the findings in their teaching, learning and assessment design.     

An Emic,Mixed-Methods Approach to Defining and Measuring Positive Parenting Among Low-Income Black Families

Research Findings: This within-group exploratory sequential mixed-methods investigation sought to identify how ethnically diverse, urban-residing, low-income Black families conceptualize positive parenting. During the item development phase 119 primary caregivers from Head Start programs participated in focus groups and interviews. These qualitative data were content analyzed using a 3-stage iterative process that resulted in the development of a final set of 72 items for a paper-and-pencil measure. In the measure validation phase of the study initial construct validity of the 72-item measure was assessed with an independent sample of 665 respondents. Common factor analyses revealed 5 dimensions of positive parenting on the Black Parenting Strengths in Context scale that related in expected ways with other parent self-report measures. Practice or Policy: Black Parenting Strengths in Context dimensions provide initial support for a more nuanced operationalization of positive parenting than currently exists in any single scale for use with this group and hold promise for better honoring the culture- and context-specific parenting goals and practices that low-income Black parents subjectively view as important for producing healthy developmental outcomes for their children.     

Exploring the underlying factor structure of the home literacy environment (HLE) in the English and Spanish versions of the Familia Inventory: A cautionary tale

Few research-based measures of the family literacy environment are commercially available, especially in Spanish. One exception is the Familia Inventory (Taylor, 1995). The present study investigated the 10 subscales of this instrument and the factor structure they imply, using data from a low-socioeconomic (SES), largely Hispanic population. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the structure of the instrument as well as whether it is invariant across English and Spanish language versions. The scale was administered to 232 parents of preschoolers. Results of the CFA revealed that the a priori dimensions of the Familia Inventory were not supported for this sample. Follow-up analyses suggested poor fit both within and between subscales. The scale fit poorly within both English and Spanish, precluding testing of invariance across language. Supplemental analyses using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on a subset of the items that had adequate variance suggested that a four-factor solution accounting for 53% of the variance best represented the English data and that a two-factor solution accounting for 43% of the variance best represented the Spanish data. Implications are discussed.     

Scale for assessing undergraduates’ interdisciplinary competences related to the smart living industry

In this study, a scale was constructed to aid college educators in developing interdisciplinary courses for smart living industry–related talent cultivation. The scale, named the Undergraduate Student Interdisciplinary Competences for the Smart Living Industry (USIC_SLI) scale, was developed on the basis of a literature review and a two-phase expert survey. A pilot test was performed, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to understand the scale’s reliability and validity. The final version of the scale comprises five subscales (i.e. communication, reflection, practice, technology values, and entrepreneurship) and 25 items. The Cronbach’s α of the scale was 0.92, and that of the subscales ranged from 0.82 to 0.89. Structural equation modelling revealed that the theoretical model and observation data of the scale were compatible, and the results indicated that the scale had appropriate validity and reliability.     

Examining factorial validity and measurement invariance of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale

The purposes of this study were to (a) test the hypothesized factor structure of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 2001) for 308 African American (AA) and European American (EA) children using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and (b) examine the measurement invariance of the factor structure across AA and EA children. CFA of the hypothesized three-factor model with correlated latent factors did not yield an optimal model fit. Parameter estimates obtained from CFA identified items with low factor loadings and R² values, suggesting that content revision is required for those items on the STRS. Deletion of two items from the scale yielded a good model fit, suggesting that the remaining 26 items reliably and validly measure the constructs for the whole sample. Tests for configural invariance, however, revealed that the underlying constructs may differ for AA and EA groups. Subsequent exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) for AA and EA children were carried out to investigate the comparability of the measurement model of the STRS across the groups. The results of EFAs provided evidence suggesting differential factor models of the STRS across AA and EA groups. This study provides implications for construct validity research and substantive research using the STRS given that the STRS is extensively used in intervention and research in early childhood education.     

Assessing Social Competence and Behavior Problems in a Sample of Italian Preschoolers Using the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale

Research Findings: The main goals of this study were to examine the factor validity of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (SCBE-30) scale using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis and to test factor invariance across gender in a sample of Italian preschool-age children (241 boys, 252 girls). The concurrent validity of the SCBE scale was examined with measures of children's popularity and rejection. Our findings replicated a 3-factor model of the SCBE scale found in other studies with 3 correlated factors of social competence, anger–aggression, and anxiety–withdrawal. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence of configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance of the scale across gender. Popularity was positively related to children's social competence and negatively related to anxiety–withdrawal. Rejection was positively related to children's anger–aggression and anxiety–withdrawal and negatively related to social competence. Practice or Policy: The use of the SCBE scale in the Italian educational setting may help teachers understand children's emotional and social competencies and thereby improve social adjustment in the classroom.     

Development of the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale

The purpose of this study was to begin to delineate competencies needed by school psychologists in the provision of counseling services to culturally diverse clients and to develop an exploratory measure of multicultural counseling competence in school psychology practice. The present article discusses the development and preliminary psychometric characteristics of the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale (MSPCCS). The MSPCCS, which assesses trainers' perceptions of the multicultural school psychology counseling competencies of graduating trainees, was administered to a national sample of directors of school psychology training programs. Preliminary findings, based on a 57% return rate, suggest that the scale has good internal consistency reliability. Results of the factor analysis support a one factor solution for the scale. Specific considerations in the use of the scale are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Development of a scale of Sense of Community in university online courses

Creating a sense of community in online classes contributes to student retention and to their overall satisfaction with the course itself. This study aimed to develop a scale of sense of community of students attending online university courses. A series of ordinal exploratory factor analyses were conducted on data obtained from 839 students enrolled in Italian universities. Using an item analysis method, we were able to select the 36 most valid items from an original set of 60 items we had previously defined. These items are distributed across three related factors measuring membership, influence, and fulfillment of needs. This factorial structure replicates the McMillan and Chavis’s model of sense of community, upon the basis of which this scale was developed. The three factors presented good ordinal alpha and adequate convergent/divergent validity coefficients. The scale represents an efficient tool for the design, monitoring, and evaluation of online courses.     

Implementing early childhood inclusion: Barrier and support factors

This study examined the underlying factor structure of a rating scale designed to assess perceived barriers and supports associated with early childhood inclusion. Participants were 201 administrators and direct service providers from the early intervention, early childhood, and special education fields and 287 parents (primarily mothers) of young children with disabilities (birth through 5 years) who received early intervention services. A four-factor solution for barriers that accounted for 41% of the total variance emerged from an exploratory factor analysis. Because one of the factors was found to have low internal consistency, a three-factor solution was used in subsequent analyses. The three factors consisted of barriers associated with early childhood program quality, community resources, and coordinating and integrating services for children with disabilities and their families. Items reflecting supports for early childhood inclusion produced a single supports factor. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed a barriers factor structure for parents that was consistent with that obtained for professionals. Background variables contributed to explaining ratings of barriers and supports among parents who differed with respect to race, education, employment status, and experience with inclusion, lending further support for the validity of the factor structure.