Understanding Change in Self-reported Undergraduate Attributes: A Repeated Measures Survey of Students in Education

Abstract

Higher education learning outcomes include attributes that are conventionally evaluated by self-reported responses to questionnaire items. Important personal traits include intellectual curiosity and openness to diverse ideas, experiences, and peoples. Evaluators need evidence for the validity and stability of research instruments across repeated administrations. This paper reports a repeated measures (early and late the same academic year) factor analytic study using three cohorts of students (first-year undergraduate, final-year undergraduate, and graduates) in one faculty to evaluate the psychometric properties of scales. Confirmatory factor analysis with invariance testing identified revised models which had configural, metric, and scalar invariance across both time points. Post-graduate students were different from undergraduate students on four scales. However, final-year students became more like graduate students and less like first-year students for curiosity and love of learning. Results are consistent with assumption that having a degree is associated with acquisition of desired personal attributes.