Approaches to study in higher education portuguese students: a portuguese version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST)

This paper examines the validity of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students—short version (ASSIST; Tait et al. in Improving student learning: Improving students as learners, 1998), to be used with Portuguese undergraduate students. The ASSIST was administrated to 566 students, in order to analyse a Portuguese version of this inventory. Exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factor analysis followed by direct oblimin rotation) reproduced the three main factors that correspond to the original dimensions of the inventory (deep, surface apathetic and strategic approaches to learning). The results are consistent with the background theory on approaches to learning. Additionally, the reliability analysis revealed acceptable internal consistency indexes for the main scales and subscales. This inventory might represent a valuable research tool for the assessment of approaches to learning among Portuguese higher education students

Development and validation of the Multi-dimensional University Research Workplace Inventory (MDURWI)

WOS:000454839600005This study describes the development and validation of an instrument aimed toward measuring organizational features of an academic research workplace. The question pool was developed based on data from a pilot study (N = 43). The survey was deployed to academic researchers in the field of higher education research worldwide (N = 850). An exploratory factor analysis conducted on 36 questions, followed by confirmatory factor analysis, which lead to a final pool of 27 questions in five subscales, one of which divided into three lower-order factors. The final model exhibited very good fit (X2/df = 2.561; CFI = 0.972; PCFI = 0.784; RMSEA = 0.043; P[rmsea ? 0.05] < 0.001; AIC = 891.018; BCC = 987.839) and psychometric properties, in the form of factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity, as well as reliability and sensitivity. Implications of this instrument for research and policymaking are discussed, as well as future research directions.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Internal consistency of the self-reporting questionnaire-20 in occupational groups

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To assess the internal consistency of the measurements of the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) in different occupational groups. METHODS A validation study was conducted with data from four surveys with groups of workers, using similar methods. A total of 9,959 workers were studied. In all surveys, the common mental disorders were assessed via SRQ-20. The internal consistency considered the items belonging to dimensions extracted by tetrachoric factor analysis for each study. Item homogeneity assessment compared estimates of Cronbach’s alpha (KD-20), the alpha applied to a tetrachoric correlation matrix and stratified Cronbach’s alpha. RESULTS The SRQ-20 dimensions showed adequate values, considering the reference parameters. The internal consistency of the instrument items, assessed by stratified Cronbach’s alpha, was high (> 0.80) in the four studies. CONCLUSIONS The SRQ-20 showed good internal consistency in the professional categories evaluated. However, there is still a need for studies using alternative methods and additional information able to refine the accuracy of latent variable measurement instruments, as in the case of common mental disorders