Examining the construct validity of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students using the Rasch model

Examining the construct validity of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students using the Rasch model

Che Yee Lye cylye@suss.edu.sg Singapore University of Social Sciences (Singapore)
Summary: 
The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) is an important instrument to measure students’ approaches to learning. However, the construct validity of the measurement used is not always sufficiently evaluated. The aim of this study was to examine the construct validity of ASSIST with 1155 Senior One students studying in 17 Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools (MICSS). The Rasch model was employed, focusing on local independence, dimensionality and measurement invariance analyses. The results confirmed the three-factor structure of ASSIST and supported the unidimensionality of the three scales. There was also no evidence of a violation of the principle of local independence for all pairs of item residuals and negligible evidence of differential item functioning (DIF) on gender and course. These results indicate that ASSIST has good construct validity and can be used as a tool for measuring students’ approaches to learning. Using the Rasch model, measures are of an interval scale, and empirical evidence about the item clusters, dimensionality and measurement invariance can be determined. Additionally, issues pertaining to dimensionality, item dependency and non-equivalency across subgroups can be detected at an early stage of the instrument development to be addressed properly in the subsequent instrument administration.
Keywords: 
Rash model
local independence
differential item functioning
principal component analysis
ASSIST.
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