Testing Measurement Invariance on a Framework for Observing and Categorizing Instructional Strategies Measure in Science Education Across American and Chinese Students

• In Event: 30.081 - Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: 30.081-8 - Science Teaching and Learning SIG Poster Session

Abstract

A better understanding of children's preferences for specific pedagogical strategies can help educators, researchers, and policy makers intentionally tailor various programs in the STEM pipeline. However, simply confirming the relationship between children’s preferences for science and their future career choices utilizing data collected would be problematic, because a measure of individual’s preferences may change across different groups of students. As such, before conducting a comparative study using American students and Chinese students, we sought to develop a measure that invariantly captures student preference: the Framework for Observing and Categorizing Instructional Strategies (FOCIS). We employed the FOCIS instrument to measure 8,481 American students’ preferences and 5,837 Chinese students’ preferences in order to confirm the multi-group measurement invariance of the FOCIS instrument.

Authors

• Robert H. Tai, University of Virginia

• Ji Hoon Ryoo, University of Virginia

• Angela D Skeeles-Worley, University of Virginia

• Silin Wei, Hangzhou Normal University