An empirical study of the construct validity of social creativity

Creativity can be broadly defined as a combination of interacting individual and environmental resources leading to the production of valuable solutions. This paper concentrates on the type of creativity that can be expressed in solving social problems. After reviewing the potentially relevant psychological and contextual variables intervening in social creativity, leading to individual differences in this capacity, we present results of a study testing the nomological validity of social creativity in a group of 70 pre-adolescents. The findings indicate that social creativity performance is linked with socially relevant variables such as social competencies, popularity, and parenting style. Finally, we discuss the relevance of a creativity approach in social domains such as violence prevention programs and education.     

An empirical examination of the effects of family commitment in education on student achievement in seventh grade science

A national data base from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) was employed to examine the effects of family commitment in education on student achievement in seventh grade science. The backward elimination procedure in the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) was adopted in this study to select significant variables of family commitment at α = .05. The results show that around 22% of the variance in student science achievement can be explained by the selected significant LSAY variables. An analysis of the impact of family commitment seems to indicate that parental education and encouragement are important factors in the improvement of student achievement. However, educators, including school personnel and parents, should exercise caution regarding how they help students with their homework and how they reward students for good grades.     

An assessment of the construct validity of the CCSEQ Quality of Effort scales

A substantial body of research indicates that the greater the effort and time expended by students in the opportunities afforded by their colleges, the greater the likelihood of academic and personal growth, satisfaction with the institution, and persistence within the educational system. The most extensive effort exerted in operationalizing the concepts of involvement and integration was that of C. Robert Pace in his development of theCollege Student Experiences Questionnaire, which was the basis for the development of theCommunity College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CCSEQ). This study examines the construct validity of the eight Quality of Effort scales resulting from the CCSEQ for students involved in all administrations of the instrument from 1990 through 1994. Results indicate that the Quality of Effort measures can be used to make valid and reliable inferences regarding students' efforts and involvement, and that the validity of the inferences is not conditional on whether the students are in vocational or transfer programs, attending full-time or part-time, or of majority or minority ethnic status.     

An investigation of the construct validity of the personality trait of self-directed learning

Based on samples of 398 middle school students, 568 high school students, and 1159 college students, self-directed learning was found to be related to cumulative grade-point-average at all levels as well as to Big Five personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion), narrow personality traits (Optimism, Career-Decidedness, Work Drive, and Self-Actualization), vocational interests (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, and Conventional, as well as Science, Medicine, and Mathematics), cognitive aptitudes, and life as well as college satisfaction. Based on an additional sample of 4125 college students, a confirmatory factor analysis was used to verify a single factor structure for our 10-item measure of self-directed learning. Results were discussed in terms of personality characteristics of self-directed learners, the trans-situational validity of self-directed learning in academic settings, multiple forms of evidence of the construct validity of self-directed learning, and implications for future research and practice.     

Note on the construct validity of the ITPA

Correlations with Binet IQ in the ITPA normative sample were corrected for restricted intelligence range. The corrected correlation for the Psycholinguistic Quotient is as high as that between the WISC and the Binet, a finding that raises a serious question about the construct validity of the ITPA.     

The construct validity of the career decision-making system cross-culturally

These findings suggest that the cultures studied have present work models where-by crafts, scientific, artistic, social, business enterprise, and business detail interests can develop. If these six interest factors are valid within these cultures, it also suggests that vocational interests can be validly measured through Holland based scales and the Holland theory of vocational development can be a relevant cross-cultural theoretical orientation for career planning. The research supports the construct validity of the Career Decision-Making System.     

An empirical examination of IRT information for school climate surveys

School climate surveys are widely applied in school districts across the nation to collect information about teacher efficacy, principal leadership, school safety, students' activities, and so forth. They enable school administrators to understand and address many issues on campus when used in conjunction with other student and staff data. However, these days each district develops the questionnaire according to its own needs and rarely provides supporting evidence for the reliability of items in the scale, that is, whether an individual item contributes significant information to the questionnaire. The Item Response Theory (IRT) is a useful tool that helps examine how much information each item and the whole scale can provide. Our study applied IRT to examine individual items in a school climate survey and assessed the efficiency of the survey after the removal of items that contributed little to the scale. The purpose of this study is to show how IRT can be applied to empirically validate school climate surveys.     

An examination of the construct of legitimate peripheral participation as a theoretical framework in literacy research

This review critically examines the use in literacy research of Lave and Wenger's (1991) construct of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP), a view of learning as participation by which newcomers adopt a group's ways, moving from periphery to the center of a practice. From a search through 10 literacy-relevant journals from 1991 to the present, we purposively selected 20 pieces that relied centrally on LPP and analyzed these for ways in which practice and apprenticeship were instantiated. Regarding practice, we inquired about legitimacy and engagement; regarding apprenticeship, we asked about the deployment of experts' attention and the cost of newcomers' mistakes. Using the benefit of the 20+ years since the original publication, our critique offers six principles to evaluate researchers' use of LPP and community of practice as constructs to describe learners' experience, and summarizes how some of our 20 studies made felicitous use of the constructs and others less so.     

The Moral Competence Test: An examination of validity for samples in the United States

The Moral Competence Test (MCT) was designed over 30 years ago to provide a resource for educators interested in conducting cross-cultural studies of moral development and education. Since its origin, it has been translated into at least 30 languages and used in hundreds of studies. However, few studies provide evidence to support the use of the test in the US. The test’s designer identified three criteria for evaluating the construct validity of the test and its primary scores: do correlations of stage scores reflect a simplex structure, do ratings follow the theoretical order of stages, does the test differentiate preferences and structures of reasoning. We use these criteria and evidence of criterion and content validity to assess the validity of the MCT. We present results from two US samples (n = 772). Results analyzing the test author’s criteria support the semantic validity of the test, however, evidence of criterion validity raise questions about the C-score as a measure of moral competence. After controlling for stage preferences, the C-score was negatively related to democratic attitudes and positively related to dogmatism.     

Understanding MOOC continuance: An empirical examination of social support theory

ABSTRACT

Learning outcomes is mediated by multi-channel learning environment and social engagement. Both factors may play a significant role in understanding motivation to learn in massive open online courses (MOOCs). The goal of this study was twofold: a. to compare behavior intention patterns of traditional e-learning platform and MOOCs participants; b. to examine relationships between behavior intention and perceived social support. Therefore, this study applies the concepts of technology acceptance model and social support theory to examine the underlying the determinants of learners’ continuance intention factors for MOOCs in Taiwan. In addition, this study adopts perceived convenience, computer self-efficacy, sense of community, and perceived gains as the constructs of social support perspective. Our examination reveals that sense of community, and perceived gains influence learners’ behavior intention of both general e-learning platform and MOOCs. However, perceived convenience and computer self-efficacy did not influence learners’ behavior intention for traditional e-learning platform, but still have efforts for MOOCs. In summary, our results show that the social support theory and technology acceptance model could be the suitable examination model to investigate the behavioral intentions for MOOCs. These findings have significant theoretical and managerial implications.     

Differences in memory retrieval: a construct validity investigation

Long-term memory retrieval efficiency was investigated as a potential underlying source of individual and developmental differences in cognitive functioning. Fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and college-aged subjects participated in a task using the Posner letter-matching paradigm. Letter pairs were presented simultaneously under physical-match and name-match instruction conditions. Reaction times were used to estimate parameters of long-term memory retrieval efficiency, basic encoding, decision, and response time, and name and physical output interference. Psychometric tests of verbal and spatial ability were included to assess convergent and discriminant validity of hypothesized relationships between aptitude test performance and basic cognitive processes. Developmental differences were observed in most but not all of the processing variables. Individual difference analyses indicated that less confounded estimates of processing parameters were not systematically related to verbal ability at any age level. Basic encoding and response speed was the most consistent correlate of spatial ability. The results suggest difficulties in previous interpretations of NIPI-verbal ability relationships. The study of cognitive processes in interaction and embedded in meaningful tasks is discussed.     

Pathways to understanding mind: construct validity and predictive validity of maternal mind-mindedness

The construct validity of maternal mind-mindedness (MM) was investigated in the context of its relations with children's later understanding of mind. MM measures were obtained from infant-mother (N = 52) interactions at 6 months, and from maternal interviews at 48 months. Children's understanding of mind was assessed using theory of mind (ToM) tasks at 45 and 48 months, and a stream of consciousness (SoC) task at 55 months. One of the early MM measures--mothers' appropriate mind-related comments--was a positive independent predictor of: (a) MM at 48 months, and (b) ToM and SoC performance at 45 to 55 months. Path analyses suggested direct links between mothers' use of appropriate mind-related comments and children's later understanding of mind.     

交际英语口语测试的结构效度

口语测试是交际测试的重要组成部分,其目的是为了测试出受试者的口语语用能力。交际英语口语测试的结构概念是受试者在真实语境下口语交际能力。根据有效的交际理论设计口语测试,并保证口语测试能体现结构效度是口语测试设计者要完成的首要课题。本文通过分析交际英语口语测试的理论基础,提出了一些基本的实现口语测试结构效度的途径。     

An examination of the decision-making process used by designers in multiple disciplines

Design-thinking is an inductive and participatory process in which designers are required to manage constraints, generate solutions, and follow project timelines in order to complete project goals. The researchers used this exploration study to look at how designers in various disciplinary fields approach design projects. Designers were asked to describe a project and a decision that they had to make previously. Decisions were analyzed to determine whether they were ready-made versus custom-made solutions. The process by which the designers arrived at the decisions was categorized as idea-imposition or discovery. Results indicated that designers work with multiple constraints while designing, and the majority used a custom-made solution following a discovery process.     

Content,concurrent and construct validity of the leadership skills inventory

The Leadership Skills Inventory was designed to assist students at the upper‐elementary, secondary, and post‐secondary levels in analyzing the strength of their leadership skills. This study was a subsidiary analyses of the research of Edmunds & Yewchuk (1996) to examine the content, concurrent and construct validity of the LSI. The results of a critical semantic comparison indicate support for content validity. Concurrent validity was supported statistically significant positive correlations between the LSI and all other leadership indicators. Interestingly, all nine categories of the LSI had statistically significant positive correlations with each other. Factor analysis revealed that the LSI contained only one factor, not nine as the separate categories infer. This supports the construct validity of the LSI, but as having only one construct, not nine as the categories suggest. There appears to be merit in using the LSI as a leadership indicator. However, further research is needed to improve its psychometric qualities.     

An empirical test of the validity of student evaluations of teaching made on RateMyProfessors.com

The present article examined the validity of public web‐based teaching evaluations by comparing the ratings on RateMyProfessors.com for 126 professors at Lander University to the institutionally administered student evaluations of teaching and actual average assigned GPAs for these same professors. Easiness website ratings were significantly positively correlated with actual assigned grades. Further, clarity and helpfulness website ratings were significantly positively correlated with student ratings of overall instructor excellence and overall course excellence on the institutionally administered IDEA forms. The results of this study offer preliminary support for the validity of the evaluations on RateMyProfessors.com.     

The construct validity and predictive validity of a self-efficacy measure for student teachers in competence-based education

This study intends to investigate the validity of a self-efficacy measure which is developed for predictive and diagnostic purposes concerning student teachers in competence-based education. CFA results delivered converging evidence for the multidimensionality of the student teacher self-efficacy construct and the bi-factor model as underlying structure, reflecting a teacher competence framework. Factor loadings of the bifactor model evidenced the theoretical assumption that incipient student teachers enter the programme with a global undifferentiated sense of teacher self-efficacy, having teaching experiences a further differentiation takes place to a partly differentiated sense of teacher self-efficacy. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the measure succeeds in predicting students’ first-year outcomes and delivered evidence for the diagnostic value of the scale.     

Applying methods to evaluate construct validity in the context of A level assessment

Validity is a central principle of assessment relating to the appropriateness of the uses and interpretations of test results. Usually, one of the inferences that we wish to make is that the score reflects the extent of a student’s learning in a given domain. Thus, it is important to establish that the assessment tasks elicit performances that reflect the intended constructs. This research explored the use of three methods for evaluating whether there are threats to validity in relation to the constructs elicited in international A level geography examinations: (a) Rasch analysis; (b) analysis of processes expected and apparent when students answer questions; and (c) qualitative analysis of responses to items identified as potentially problematic. The results provided strong evidence to support validity with regard to the elicitation of constructs although one question part was identified as a threat to validity. Strengths and weaknesses of the methods can be identified.