A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation

Despite the continued reliance on undergraduate students as research participants, there is an absence of valid, reliable measures of student perceptions of educational gains from research participation. In this article, we present two studies outlining the development and initial validation of a ne...

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Main Authors: Roberts, Lynne, Allen, Peter
Format: Journal Article
Published: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37048
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author Roberts, Lynne
Allen, Peter
author_facet Roberts, Lynne
Allen, Peter
author_sort Roberts, Lynne
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Despite the continued reliance on undergraduate students as research participants, there is an absence of valid, reliable measures of student perceptions of educational gains from research participation. In this article, we present two studies outlining the development and initial validation of a new measure, the student perceptions of the educational value of research participation scale. In Study One a pool of 28 items was developed from previous qualitative research and administered to a convenience sample of 68 Australian university student volunteers. Following principal axis factoring, a seven-item unidimensional scale with good internal reliability (α = .82) was developed and validated against an existing measure of reactions to research participation. In Study Two, 104 members of a second-year undergraduate psychology participant pool completed the measure. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a higher order two-factor model (overall α = .82). Across both volunteer and participant pool samples, the educational value of research participation was rated more highly than the costs of research participation (emotional reactions and drawbacks of participating), indicating a positive cost–benefit ratio of research participation. This brief, internally reliable measure can be used in assessing students' perceptions of educational gain in both individual research projects and across research projects.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-370482017-09-13T15:55:05Z A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation Roberts, Lynne Allen, Peter Despite the continued reliance on undergraduate students as research participants, there is an absence of valid, reliable measures of student perceptions of educational gains from research participation. In this article, we present two studies outlining the development and initial validation of a new measure, the student perceptions of the educational value of research participation scale. In Study One a pool of 28 items was developed from previous qualitative research and administered to a convenience sample of 68 Australian university student volunteers. Following principal axis factoring, a seven-item unidimensional scale with good internal reliability (α = .82) was developed and validated against an existing measure of reactions to research participation. In Study Two, 104 members of a second-year undergraduate psychology participant pool completed the measure. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a higher order two-factor model (overall α = .82). Across both volunteer and participant pool samples, the educational value of research participation was rated more highly than the costs of research participation (emotional reactions and drawbacks of participating), indicating a positive cost–benefit ratio of research participation. This brief, internally reliable measure can be used in assessing students' perceptions of educational gain in both individual research projects and across research projects. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37048 10.1111/ajpy.12007 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. restricted
spellingShingle Roberts, Lynne
Allen, Peter
A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation
title A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation
title_full A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation
title_fullStr A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation
title_full_unstemmed A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation
title_short A brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation
title_sort brief measure of student perceptions of the educational value of research participation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37048