Development and testing of an instrument to measure the collegiality competence of social and health care educators

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have investigated the competence of social and health care educators from different perspectives. However, there has been little research on the collegiality competence of social and health educators. Aim / ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to develop and psychometrically test a new collegiality competence instrument (CollegialityComp) designed to enable social and health care educators to self-evaluate their competence in collegiality. DesignA cross-sectional study design for instrument development and psychometric testing. MethodsData were collected in the winter of 2020–2021 from social and health care educators at ten universities of applied sciences and ten vocational institutions in Finland (N = 1179), of whom 243 decided to participate. Face and content validity was assessed by seven experts, while structural validity and internal consistency were evaluated using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha, respectively. ResultsThe CollegialityComp development and testing process produced an instrument that includes 35 items representing five factors: (1) individual-centered collaboration, (2) educator action and fairness, (3) collaboration among colleagues, (4) collaboration outside the organization, and (5) communication and trust. ConclusionThe CollegialityComp instrument can be used to measure the collegiality competence of social and health care educators in the context of vocational and higher education. It may also be useful during the training of teacher candidates.