Career Adapt-Abilities Scale–Short Form (CAAS-SF) : Construction and Validation

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) has become one of the most widely used questionnaires to assess career adaptability. To facilitate the integration of this instrument into large surveys, in varied settings with different populations, the aim of this article was to develop a briefer version consisting of 12 items, the CAAS-SF. A sample of 2,800 French and German-speaking adults living in Switzerland (Mage = 41.2, SD = 9.4) completed the 24-item version of the CAAS. On a first random subsample, item-reduction using principal component analyses highlighted a four-factor solution corresponding to the original CAAS. Confirmatory factor analyses, conducted on a second random subsample, confirmed the hierarchical factor structure of the short version. The CAAS-SF reached measurement equivalence across linguistic and gender groups. Furthermore, the 12 and 24-item versions were strongly associated. Overall, the results supported the CAAS-SF as pertinent and economical alternative to the 24-item version

Connections between future time perspectives and self-regulated learning for mid-year engineering students: a multiple case study

This dissertation presents multiple studies with the purpose of understanding the connections between undergraduate engineering students\u27 motivations, specifically students\u27 Future Time Perspectives (FTPs) and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). FTP refers to the views students hold about the future and how their perceptions of current tasks are affected by these views. SRL connects the behaviors, metacognition, and motivation of students in their learning. The goals of this research project were to 1) qualitatively describe and document engineering students\u27 SRL strategies, 2) examine interactions between engineering students\u27 FTPs and SRL strategy use, and 3) explore goal-setting as a bridge between FTP and SRL. In an exploratory qualitative study with mid-year industrial engineering students to examine the SRL strategies used before and after an SRL intervention, results showed that students intended to use more SRL strategies than they attempted. However, students self-reported using new SRL strategies from the intervention. Students in this population also completed a survey and a single interview about FTP and SRL. Results showed perceptions of instrumentality of coursework and skills as motivation for using SRL strategies, and a varied use of SRL strategies for students with different FTPs. Overall, three types of student FTP were seen: students with a single realistic view of the future, conflicting ideal and realistic future views, or open views of the future. A sequential explanatory mixed methods study was conducted with mid-year students from multiple engineering majors. First a cluster analysis of survey results of FTP items compared to FTP interview responses was used for participant selection. Then a multiple case study was conducted with data collected through surveys, journal entries, course performance, and two interviews. Results showed that students with a well-defined FTP self-regulated in the present based on their varied perceptions of instrumentality for their present tasks and evaluated and adapted their SRL strategies based on grades. Students with conflicting perceptions of the future used a high level of SRL in courses related to both conflicting future paths or related to their short-term goals. Students with open views had high SRL in most of their courses due to a high perception of instrumentality for their present courses. Implications for practice include use of a context-based SRL intervention to teach effective learning strategies, a shift of key general education courses to earlier in the engineering curriculum, and utilization of career-focused problems to support student FTP development and stress the importance of course content in future engineering careers

Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later

Cognitive load theory was introduced in the 1980s as an instructional design theory based on several uncontroversial aspects of human cognitive architecture. Our knowledge of many of the characteristics of working memory, long-term memory and the relations between them had been well-established for many decades prior to the introduction of the theory. Curiously, this knowledge had had a limited impact on the field of instructional design with most instructional design recommendations proceeding as though working memory and long-term memory did not exist. In contrast, cognitive load theory emphasised that all novel information first is processed by a capacity and duration limited working memory and then stored in an unlimited long-term memory for later use. Once information is stored in long-term memory, the capacity and duration limits of working memory disappear transforming our ability to function. By the late 1990s, sufficient data had been collected using the theory to warrant an extended analysis resulting in the publication of Sweller et al. (Educational Psychology Review, 10, 251-296, 1998). Extensive further theoretical and empirical work have been carried out since that time and this paper is an attempt to summarise the last 20 years of cognitive load theory and to sketch directions for future research