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Development and Validation of the Assessment for Learning Experience Inventory (AFLEI) in Chinese Higher Education

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Abstract

While assessment for learning (AfL) has gained increasing international prominence, and has been strongly promulgated by an increasing number of education systems, current instruments designed to measure students’ assessment for learning experience show a number of methodological shortcomings, such as lacking construct validity and low internal consistency of scales, or structural confirmations of the dimensionality of AfL constructs captured in the questionnaires have not been tested. This paper presents the development and validation of a psychometrically robust measure of assessment for learning experience in the Chinese higher education—the Assessment for Learning Experience Inventory (AFLEI). Two independent samples of 201 and 163 higher education students responded to the AFLEI. The data were then subjected to Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFAs) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs), respectively. Results from both EFAs and CFAs provided support for a five–factor AfL experience inventory with a strong psychometric basis. The five clusters of AfL experience perceived by the Chinese university students are Teacher formal feedback and support, Interactive dialog and peer collaboration, Learning-oriented assessment, Active engagement with subject matter, and Students taking responsibility for their learning. The correlations between the five clusters of AfL experience and the ‘deep learning approach’ of the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) supported the concurrent validity of the AFLEI. The AFLEI can be used both as an evaluation tool to evaluate the extent to which university students experience AfL practices in university curriculum, and as a research tool to explore more deeply the relationships between AfL experience and student learning.

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Notes

  1. All fit indices were robust indices based on MLR estimator.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the University of Macau under Grant MYRG 2016–00141-FED. The authors would like to thank all the research assistants for their help in coordinating the collection of data and administering the questionnaire.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macao, People’s Republic of China

    Zhengdong Gan

  2. Educational Science Research Institute, Hunan University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China

    Jinbo He

  3. School of Foreign Studies, Anhui University, Hefei, People’s Republic of China

    Kejuan Mu

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  1. Zhengdong Gan
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  2. Jinbo He
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Correspondence to Zhengdong Gan.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Chinese Translation of the Questionnaire Items

figure a

Appendix 2: Scree Plot and Parallel Analysis

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Gan, Z., He, J. & Mu, K. Development and Validation of the Assessment for Learning Experience Inventory (AFLEI) in Chinese Higher Education. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 28, 371–385 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-019-00435-7

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