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Item‐level and subscale‐level factoring of Biggs’ Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ) in a mainland Chinese sample
Author(s) -
Sachs John,
Gao Lingbiao
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1348/000709900158209
Subject(s) - psychology , confirmatory factor analysis , consistency (knowledge bases) , reliability (semiconductor) , factor analysis , internal consistency , sample (material) , test (biology) , psychometrics , statistics , developmental psychology , structural equation modeling , mathematics , paleontology , power (physics) , physics , geometry , chemistry , chromatography , quantum mechanics , biology
Background. The learning process questionnaire (LPQ) has been the source of intensive cross‐cultural study. However, an item‐level factor analysis of all the LPQ items simultaneously has never been reported. Rather, items within each subscale have been factor analysed to establish subscale unidimensionality and justify the use of composite subscale scores. Aims. It was of major interest to see if the six logically constructed items groups of the LPQ would be supported by empirical evidence. Additionally, it was of interest to compare the consistency of the reliability and correlational structure of the LPQ subscales in our study with those of previous cross‐cultural studies. Methods. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to fit the six‐factor item level model and to fit five representative subscale level factor models. Sample. A total of 1070 students between the ages of 15 to 18 years was drawn from a representative selection of 29 classes from within 15 secondary schools in Guangzhou, China. Males and females were almost equally represented. Results. The six‐factor item level model of the LPQ seemed to fit reasonably well, thus supporting the six dimensional structure of the LPQ and justifying the use of composite subscale scores for each LPQ dimension. However, the reliability of many of these subscales was low. Furthermore, only two subscale‐level factor models showed marginally acceptable fit. Substantive considerations supported an oblique three‐factor model. Conclusions. Because the LPQ subscales often show low internal consistency reliability, experimental and correlational studies that have used these subscales as dependent measures have been disappointing. It is suggested that some LPQ items should be revised and other items added to improve the inventory's overall psychometric properties.