Psychometric properties and stability of the student attitudinal success instrument: the SASI-I

• Autores: Kenneth Reid, P. K. Imbrie, Joe J. J. Lin, Teri Reed, Jason C. Immekus
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 32, no. 6, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Research in Engineering Education), págs. 2470-2486
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The Student Attitudinal Success Instrument (SASI-I) was designed to collect data on affective (non-cognitive)characteristics for incoming engineering students (a) which can be collected prior to the first year and (b) for whichhigher education institutions may have an influence during students’ first year of study. Three years of data from incomingfirst-year engineering students (N = 5,181) were collected and analyzed. This work focuses on two research questions: Dothe scale scores of the instrument demonstrate evidence of reliability and validity, and what is the normative taxonomy ofthe scale scores of first-year engineering students across multiple years?Internal consistency of scale scores was investigated. Factor analysis was used to establish and verify the structure of thefactors and subfactors. McDermott’s three-stage cluster analysis was used to define the normative taxonomies of threeyears of student data. The SASI-I is shown to be a psychometrically sound instrument for the population of first-yearengineering students at a Research 1 institution: Cronbach’s coefficient alpha values for all scales exceed 0.8 (with twoexceptions, 0.75 and 0.79); confirmatory factor analysis results verify the theoretical factor structure of each. Clusteranalysis results in a stable, repeatable 3-cluster solution over multiple years: clusters expected to be highly similar wereshown to have values of Cattell’s coefficient > 0.94. In addition, normative taxonomies in the form of cluster membershipestablish this work as a foundation upon which future retention research can be performed.