The Adult Learner Self-Directedness Scale: Validity and reliability assessment
SA Journal of Industrial Psychology
| Field | Value | |
| Title | The Adult Learner Self-Directedness Scale: Validity and reliability assessment | |
| Creator | Botha, Jo-Anne Masenge, Andries | |
| Description | Orientation: The absence of a scale to assess the academic self-directedness of adult learners in South African open, distance and e-learning milieus.Research purpose: This article describes the further validity and reliability assessment of the Adult Learner Self-Directedness Scale (ALSDS), which assesses adult learners’ academic self-directedness in an open, distance and e-learning (ODeL) university in South Africa. An initial validity and reliability study yielded a four-factor scale with 35 items loading onto it, while this study reports on a three-factor scale with 15 items loading onto it.Motivation for the study: Factors such as socio-economic conditions and past education practices make South African open, distance and e-learning higher education (ODeLHE) challenging for socio-economically disadvantaged students. The growing trend of online tuition and assessment in South African universities requires research into strategies that may improve a student’s success and throughput. In ODeLHE, student self-directedness may contribute to academic success, and thus a reliable scale is needed to assess it. Currently, there is no such South African scale.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was implemented, using self-report data from the students of the College of Economic and Management Sciences at a South African ODeL university. The ALSDS comprises three factors: success orientation for ODeLHE (self-efficacy beliefs), active academic behaviour (learner agency) and use of strategic resources (learning context management).Main findings: The findings indicate that the ALSDS appears to be a valid, internally consistent and reliable scale suitable for assessing ODeLHE adult learners’ academic self-directedness. Further research is, however, required to establish metric and scalar invariance.Practical/managerial implications: The scale may provide a reliable starting point for developing a scale for assessing ODeLHE students’ existing academic self-directedness. Knowledge of existing self-directedness capacity may be useful in designing and implementing holistic learner support programmes.Contribution/value-add: The ALSDS may provide a reliable Afrocentric starting point for developing a measure for assessing the academic self-directedness of South African ODeLHE students. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2022-11-23 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/sajip.v48i0.1926 | |
| Source | SA Journal of Industrial Psychology; Vol 48 (2022); 10 pages 2071-0763 0258-5200 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1926/3570
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1926/3571
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1926/3572
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1926/3573
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