Constructive Alignment in the Field of Educational Psychology: Development and Application of a Questionnaire for Assessing Constructive Alignment

Abstract

Teaching of Psychology includes a great variety of topics, course formats, and assessment approaches. A central concept that incorporated the interface between teaching goals, instructional methods, and examination modalities is referred to as Constructive Alignment (CA). This model addresses possible designs of teaching to improve students’ learning outcomes as well as enhance their learning experiences, and claims to be applicable independent of disciplinary culture or content. Despite the importance of this approach from an instructional point of view, there is hardly any research, so far, that has been concerned with capturing the three dimensions of CA. As a consequence, the aim of our study was to create an instrument to assess the quality of CA within psychology classes. A questionnaire was designed and was additionally analyzed with regard to students’ judgements about overall course evaluation. The questionnaire was employed in two lectures within the field of educational psychology for teacher training students. Results reveal that overall course evaluation can be predicted by the match between course objectives and instructional methods whereas other course evaluation factors failed as predictors. With a high internal consistency, the instrument provides an alternative or a supplement for traditional course evaluation instruments.