The Design and validation of a questionnaire Evaluating Students’ Satisfaction regarding their Practicums in a range of Education Degrees (ESSIE)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The practicum is a core subject that offers the student the chance to obtain practical experience in real situations and contexts, while reflecting upon and implementing knowledge acquired in other subjects of the degree. In order to improve the quality of the practicum, it must be assessed, and an essential part of this assessment entails evaluating students’ perceptions and experiences during this period. In this context, valid and viable instruments are required to ensure that an adequate evaluation of the practicum can be conducted, and its educational quality is optimised. The aim of this work is to construct and validate a questionnaire to assess the students’ degree of satisfaction with the practical classes in the range of Bachelor’s of Education degrees under study. METHOD. Results are presented of a content validation process in which 12 experts from both school and university settings participated. The results are also presented of a pilot study with 97 students of a Pre-Primary School Teacher Degree, a Primary Education School Teacher Degree, a Masters in Secondary School Teacher Training and a Master’s Degree in Psychopedagogy of the Madrid Open University (MOU). RESULTS. The results report a high content validity (relevance=82% and clarity=85%) and reliability (Cronbach’s=0.95). In turn, the validity of the construct explained in the exploratory factor analysis showed an adequate metric quality. Two factors were obtained that explained 79.04% of the total variance. DISCUSSION. The results demonstrate that the validity of the questionnaire and the measured object are reliable. This instrument can form the basis of the evaluation of practical training in other centres.