Development and validation of the short use of creative cognition scale in studying

This paper reports the development and validation of a short Use of Creative Cognition Scale in Studying (UCCS) that was inspired by the Cognitive Processes Associated with Creativity (CPAC) scale. In Study 1, items from two of the six subscales of the CPAC were excluded due to conceptual and psychometric issues to create a 21-item CPAC scale, which was administered to 517 university students. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the 21-item CPAC scale is unidimensional. Five items were selected to create the new unidimensional UCCS. In Study 2, 696 students completed the UCCS and a set of scales measuring related constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis corroborated the unidimensional structure of the scale. The scale correlated positively with measures of flow, trait intrinsic motivation, adaptive metacognitive traits and positive affect, it correlated negatively with negative affect, and it did not correlate with core maladaptive metacognitive traits. The findings indicate that the scale is a valid and reliable tool for research and monitoring.     

Reviewing affective,behavioural and cognitive learning gains in higher education

The notion of learning gains has increasingly become apparent within the higher education literature and is gaining traction in government policies in the US and UK, reflecting a desire to “quantify” the impact of university study and teaching excellence in particular. Given the increased policy focus on learning gains, it is essential that researchers and policy makers are informed about common used approaches to measure learning gains, and their expected range and magnitude. Therefore, a systematic literature search was undertaken. 52 studies (n?=?41,009) were coded into affective, behavioural and/or cognitive learning gains. The review found a rich but diverse variety of adopted methodologies and approaches to “measure” affective, behavioural and cognitive (ABC) learning gains. Nonetheless, there is a lack of consistency in the ways in which learning gains are currently measured and reported. These inconsistencies and limitations hamper effective comparisons of learning gains and teaching excellence. We recommend a greater emphasis on longitudinal measurement of learning gains using validated approaches.