Assessment and validation: an updated climate change Plausibility Perception Measure

Abstract

Plausibility perceptions about climate change influence learner engagement, motivation, and knowledge acquisition, thereby shaping the effectiveness of climate change education. The Plausibility Perception Measure (PPM) was originally developed following the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. There was a need to update the scale to measure individuals’ plausibility perceptions regarding the current climate crisis. This study updated the PPM scale to reflect the IPCC’s 2022 report on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. The updated PPM scale is a ten-point Likert scale consisting of 15 items. Data were collected from 330 pre-service teachers at a public research university. The reliability of the scale represents an excellent consistency measure (α = 0.92). Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the three-factor model fit the data very well (TLI ≥ 0.90, CFI ≥ 0.90, RMSEA ≤ 0.08). The updated PPM scale shows promising reliability and validity for assessing individuals’ plausibility perceptions of the current climate crisis.