Development of the Individual and Peer Study Skills Scale

Abstract

Learners can demonstrate the performance expected of them in study skills individually or with peers. The literature shows that there is no customization of study skills, such as working individually or with peers. Therefore, there is a need for measurement tools that can identify the needs of learners while determining their study skills for both individual and peer activities. This study aims to develop a scale to measure university students' individual and peer study skills. The research was conducted using an exploratory correlational design, and data was collected from two different samples for pilot and validation applications. The pilot and validation application sample comprised 470 and 323 teacher candidates. Item analysis for item validity and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for construct validity were conducted on the pilot study data. Before the EFA, optimal parallel analysis was used to examine the scale's dimensionality. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on the validation data to gather evidence for construct validity. The optimal parallel analysis suggested a two-dimensional structure for the scale. As a result of the EFA, a two-dimensional construct with 28 items, consisting of 16 and 12 items in each dimension, explained 58.8% of the variance. The first dimension of the scale was named peer study skills, and the second was named individual study skills. Item analysis revealed that the discrimination of the items in both dimensions was sufficient. The CFA results confirmed the two-factor construct of the scale. The trial and validation studies data showed that the reliability coefficients, considering both dimensions individually and the overall scale, indicated that the scores are reliable.