Instrument adaptation in cross-cultural studies of students’ mathematics-related beliefs: learning from healthcare research

Abstract

Much comparative education-related beliefs research has exploited questionnaires developed in one culture for use in another. This has been particularly the case in mathematics education, the focus of this paper. In so doing, researchers have tended to assume that translation alone is sufficient to warrant a reliable and valid instrument for cross-cultural research, prompting concerns that a number of necessary equivalences are unlikely to have been addressed. In this paper we consider the nature of these equivalences before examining the literature of a different field, healthcare research, to synthesise an approach to instrument adaptation that is pragmatic but rigorous. Finally, we demonstrate how this pragmatic approach, incorporating extensive cognitive interviews, enabled us to adapt and refine a mathematics-related beliefs questionnaire, developed in Flanders, for use with students, aged 14/15, in England and Spain. Analyses indicate that the instrument so developed is multidimensional, reliable and cross-culturally valid. Some implications are discussed.

An attempt to identify the issues underlying the lack of consistent conceptualisations in the field of student mathematics-related beliefs

“…For example, expressions commonplace in, say, self-efficacy scales (e.g. those of Fennema [65], PISA 2012 [119], and Op’t Eynde [126], Ren [61]) like I am confident that …, I am sure that …, and I am certain that …, proved problematic with respect to Spanish equivalents, no least because confident, sure and certain imply subtly increasing levels of certain in English, which cannot be accommodated in Spanish [127]. “The Spanish translation of I am confident that is estar seguro de que .…”

Adaptación y validación del MRBQ (Mathematics- Related Beliefs Questionnaire) al contexto colombiano con estudiantes de secundaria

“…A pesar de los numerosos trabajos que existen en educación matemática sobre el estudio de las creencias (v.g. Kloosterman y Stage, 1992;Furinghetti y Pehkonen, 2002;Op't Eynde y De Corte, 2003;Lomas, Grootenboer y Attard, 2012;Diego-Mantecón, 2013;Andrews y Diego-Mantecón, 2015) no se ha establecido un consenso a la hora de definirlas. Furinghetti y Pehkonen (2002), después de analizar las definiciones utilizadas por diferentes expertos a nivel mundial, concluyen que no hay unanimidad y que una caracterización universal podría no ser posible.…”

Do we see through their eyes? Testing a bilingual questionnaire in education research using cognitive interviews

“…Further methodological considerations have surfaced when transferring questionnaires from a monocultural to a cross-cultural context. Examples of specific challenges highlighted in comparative survey research in education include questionnaire construction (Thomas 2007), instrument translation and adaptation (Andrews and Diego-Mantecón 2015), issues of equivalence (Rutkowski and Svetina 2014), and operationalisation of 'culture' (LeTendre 2002).…”

“…However, whether the researchers in other contexts also adopted this pretesting method and how these findings informed the revisions of the English version is not reported. The other study by Andrews and Diego-Mantecón (2015) explains how an instrument developed in the Flanders was adapted through CI for use in England and Spain, but it was a post hoc (sequential) adaptation of the existing Mathematics-Related Beliefs Questionnaire (MRBQ). The source (Dutch) version was not purposefully designed for comparative research.…”