Primary and secondary students’ views of learning personalisation: construction and validation of a scale

Abstract

In this work we present the formulation and psychometric validation of a scale for the exploration of primary and secondary students’ views of school learning personalisation strategies (EPAE-A from the Spanish Escala de Personalisación del Aprendizaje Escolar – Alumnado, School Learning Personalisation Scale – Students). The instrument was developed as part of a broader research project which analyses educational innovation involving personalisation. The starting point for the formulation process was to establish a typology of teaching practices and strategies which, according to the scientific literature, promote school learning that has personal meaning and significance for students. In order to construct the EPAE-A, two preliminary pilot studies were conducted, the first involving 507 students and the second 1,411 students. The process enabled us to reduce the initial set of items to a total of 34. These were grouped into two sub-scales: one of frequency (10 items) and the other of agreement (24 items). Factor analysis revealed a four-factor structure of the agreement sub-scale corresponding to four dimensions of learning personalisation: 1) learner’s control and decision-making regarding the learning process; 2) experiential and emotional basis; 3) connections between learning experiences; and 4) reflection upon oneself as a learner and upon the learning process itself. A unidimensional structure was identified for the frequency sub-scale, grouping items according to specific teacher and student actions related to learning personalisation strategies. In order to obtain evidence of the validity and reliability of the scale, the final version was applied to a sample of 4,909 students aged between 10 and 18 years from educational institutions located in Catalonia, Extremadura and Madrid, Spain. The results provide strong evidence of the internal structural validity and reliability of the scale.

Keywords: primary education, secondary education, student views scale, personalisation strategies, learning personalisation, validation of a scale.