Examining the Reliability and Validity of Measuring Scales related to Informatization Instructional Leadership Using PLS-SEM Approach

Abstract

During the COVID-19, university teachers’ informatization instructional leadership (TIIL) was adopted in many countries. This attracted widespread attention. This research derived six factors from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) including performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC) and behavioral intention (BI), added two new internal elements related to the individual teacher which are computer self-efficacy (CSE) and blended teaching competence (BTC). Before using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore the contributing factors to TIIL by assessing interrelation between constructs within extended UTAUT model in this study. This pilot study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of modified scales incorporating Use Expectancy (UE) Scale including (PE Scale and EE Scale) used to measure use expectancy, SI Scale to measure social influence, FC Scale to measure facilitating conditions, CSE Scale to measure computer self-efficacy, BTC Scale to measure blended teaching competence, BI Scale to measure behavioral intention to adopt TIIL, and the TIIL Scale to measure teachers’ informatization instructional leadership. A total of 60 teachers from the large multi-disciplinary private undergraduate universities in Xi’an city of Shaanxi province in China participated in this research. The data was collected in November-December 2022 during the middle stages of COVID-19 pandemic. The PLS-SEM approach was used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the adapted scales. The internal consistency reliability was determined by composite reliability (CR) and Cronbach’s alpha. Convergent validity was assessed by outer loading and average variance extracted (AVE). Assessment of discriminant validity was measured by Fornell-Larcker criterion, Cross-loadings and Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT). Results showed after deleting nine items with lower than .40, Cronbach’s alpha values were all higher than .70. CR values were at a satisfactory level. All item values fulfilled the criteria of AVE, Fornell-Larcker criterion, cross-loadings, and HTMT. Research results revealed all adapted scales were valid and reliable to be used in future research. This study explored the influencing factors of TIIL in Chinese context, enriched the theory of TIIL, and provided practical support for the future development of TIIL.