Work

Supporting fair use in context of instruments in engineering education research: A renewed conversation about validity

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: A renewed conversation about validity London et al. (2021) described engineering education as a "maturing field of scientific inquiry" that lacks the "signposts," such as theories, techniques, instruments, and methods, characteristic of more mature fields.It is perhaps for this reason that engineering education research has historically relied on instruments developed by scholars outside of engineering education (e.g., psychology, sociology, and science education; Borrego & Streveler, 2015;Malmi et al., 2018).This history has created a body of extant literature with varying levels of consideration made to the unifying concept of validity and the process of validation as an ongoing argument for the fair use of an instrument with the population under study and in the context in which the study occurs.The sheer quantity of studies having overlooked such considerations can easily suggest to new scholars that the approaches of yesterday are still appropriate for today's engineering education research.Douglas and Purzer (2015) brought to the forefront how validity was conceptualized in their editorial written a decade ago.They highlighted the 2014 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing by the American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, and the National Council for Measurement in Education, presented five misconceptions about validity, suggested clarifications to the community to improve assessment-based research, and shared several exemplar assessment instruments for the community to consider.New examples of exemplar assessment instruments have been published in engineering education since, but patterns in publications and submissions wherein authors fail to provide a robust description of the validation process persist.This pattern calls into questions instrument validity, trust in the associated findings, and the ability of scholars to adopt or adapt an instrument for fair use in context for subsequent studies.

Source: Journal of Engineering Education

DOI: 10.1002/jee.70041

Authors: Trevion S. Henderson, Allison Godwin, Adam Robert Carberry

Institutions: Tufts University, Cornell University, The Ohio State University

Language: English

Topic: Engineering Education and Curriculum Development

Subfield: Media Technology

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,710