The development and validation of an instrument to measure evaluative judgement: a focus on engineering students’ judgement of intercultural competence

Abstract

Intensive research attention has focused on developing students’ evaluative judgement within the higher education curriculum, but little has addressed how it can be measured. The contextual nature of evaluative judgement makes it difficult to generate an encompassing instrument, highlighting the need for situated measurement tools. Against this background, this study develops and validates a self-report instrument to measure engineering students’ evaluative judgement of intercultural competence. A total of 815 Chinese engineering students participated in the pilot and formal phases of validation. Following sequential exploratory-confirmatory factor analyses, the final instrument contains 27 items covering six dimensions. Validity and reliability evidence supports the correlated six-factor model and a higher-order factor model. The study provides educators and policymakers with a useful tool to understand students’ development in their evaluative judgement of intercultural competence. More importantly, for students themselves, the instrument facilitates self-reflection and helps them achieve greater autonomy in directing their development and growth. Although the study adopts a situated approach to measure evaluative judgement, we also discuss the possibility of adapting this instrument for other judgement contexts.