Establishing the validity and reliability of course evaluation questionnaires

Establishing the validity and reliability of course evaluation questionnaires

• Kember, David Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Leung, Doris Y. P. University of Hong Kong

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(4), 341-353, 2008

Routledge

2008

• L Educational Measurement & Evaluation
• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MG Identities, Attitudes & Opinion of Educational Workers

Course Evaluation (Education) Questionnaires Personality Questionnaires Teachers -- Rating Of Qualitative Research Factor Analysis Design & Construction

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

This article uses the case of designing a new course questionnaire to discuss the issues of validity, reliability and diagnostic power in good questionnaire design. Validity is often not well addressed in course questionnaire design as there are no straightforward tests that can be applied to an individual instrument. The authors propose the technique of establishing validity by deriving constructs from naturalistic qualitative research--in this case by interviewing award-winning teachers about their principles and practices. Analysis of the interview transcripts led to nine principles of good teaching, which were developed into nine questionnaire scales. Reliability was tested with Cronbach's alpha and with confirmatory factor analysis, as the use of Cronbach's alpha alone can mask issues of multi-dimensionality in scales. The concept of diagnostic power as the ability of an instrument to distinguish between related constructs is introduced. This is important in course evaluation questionnaires, as it enables relative strengths and weaknesses to be identified, which makes it possible to advise on remedial action.
[Copyright of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602930701563070]

• English

Journal Articles

• 02602938

• 10.1080/02602930701563070

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/afc5b842

2010-11-24