An Evaluation of the Factor Structure and Internal Consistency of the ‘Conceptions of Learning’ and ‘Preferences for Teaching’ Measures in American Occupational Therapy Students

Abstract

When planning to use measurement scales in new samples and contexts, examining the scales' psychometric properties is an important initial step. This study examined the factor structure and internal consistency of two measures that are part of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST)-the Conceptions of learning and Preferences for teaching and courses-in a sample of American occupational therapy students. The students (n = 115) completed the measures and provided basic sociodemographic information. Scale structure was examined with Principal Components Analysis (PCA), while consistency between scale items was assessed with mean inter-item correlations. For the Conceptions of learning measure, one item was removed due to cross-loading between factors. The subsequent analysis revealed two factors, representing deep and surface conceptions of learning, on which the items-with one exception-loaded in line with theory. For the Preferences for teaching and courses measure, two factors were found, representing preferences denoted in theory as supporting understanding and transmitting information, respectively. The items showed good fit with the two theoretically proposed factors. The scales' mean inter-item correlations were satisfactory, ranging 0.27-0.36. One item on the Conceptions of learning measure appears to be problematic due to crossloading, and another may be interpreted in a different way than originally proposed. After removing the problematic item, all scales showed satisfactory psychometric properties for assessing conceptions of learning and preferences for teaching.

Occupational therapy students’ preferences for teaching and course design across a three-year undergraduate education program

“…Descriptive analysis on all variables was performed, using means (M), standard deviations (SD), frequencies and percentages as appropriate. Factor analysis was used to confirm the two-factor structure reported by Bonsaksen and Thørrisen (2017). The two latent factors accounted for a cumulative 47.2% of the data variance, and all items loaded onto the two factors (factor loadings ranging between 0.55 and 0.80) as theoretically expected.…”

“…“Lecturers who encourage us to think for ourselves and show us how they themselves think.” The other four statements are designed to reflect a preference for teaching oriented towards surface understanding, “transmitting information”; e.g. “Books which give you definite facts and information which can easily be learned.” The measure was psychometrically investigated in a study by Bonsaksen and Thørrisen (2017), in which the proposed two-factor structure was supported by exploratory principal components analysis. In this study, the internal consistency of the two scales (see data analysis section) was also found to be satisfactory, although in the lower range.…”