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Student orientation in higher education: development of the construct

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Abstract

This paper argues that student orientation (SO) is a high order construct that should be measured formatively rather than reflectively. Using a discovery-oriented approach, conducted by supplementing educational and marketing literatures with in depth interviews from 23 academic staff in seven different universities, the authors identified three second-order formative constructs and one first-order reflective construct to measure the concept of SO. The study then developed a self-administrated survey to validate the four identified constructs that form SO. Through using rigours statistical analysis, the study confirms that the measurement instrument for SO is the 53-item which can be validly and reliably measured using the nine multi-item components of: Measuring and Adapting Teaching Practices, Promoting Best Teaching Practices, Assessment and Feedback, Adopting Outside-In-Approach, Student Engagement, Employer Engagement Initiatives, Intrafunctional Coordination, Interfunctional Coordination and Effective Personal Tutoring System. The effect of SO on student satisfaction and university reputation was also hypothesised and tested using a structural equation modelling (SmartPLS 2.0).

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Notes

  1. The original number of first-order indicators was eight, however, when performing factorial analysis, a new factor emerged called “measuring and adopting teaching practices”.

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  1. Marketing Department, University of Petra, Amman, Jordan

    Ibrahim Alnawas

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  1. Ibrahim Alnawas
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Correspondence to Ibrahim Alnawas.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 7.

Table 7 Reliability analysis of the nine first-order constructs
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Appendix 2

See Table 8.

Table 8 EFA nine-factor model
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Alnawas, I. Student orientation in higher education: development of the construct. High Educ 69, 625–652 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9794-1

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