Development and validation of the Workplace Learning Inventory in Health Sciences Education: a multimethod study

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• Health sciences students encounter significant challenges in clinical practical learning.
• Existing self-regulated learning instruments are limited to preclinical settings, leaving a gap in workplace learning assessment.
• Understanding student learning in clinical environments is crucial for addressing educational needs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a comprehensive set of scales for assessing undergraduate health sciences students' workplace learning.
• To cover four key areas: cognition, motivation, emotion, and context, across two levels: learning process and meta-level.
• To create a feasible inventory for researchers investigating workplace learning in health sciences.

Main Methods:

• Study 1: A qualitative multimethod approach involving literature review, interviews, synthesis, item development, expert review, and cognitive pretesting.
• Study 2: A quantitative study to evaluate the psychometric properties of the developed scales.
• Integration of perspectives from students, teachers, and researchers throughout the development process.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive Workplace Learning Inventory with 31 scales across the specified areas and levels was successfully developed.
• The scales demonstrated acceptable unidimensionality, reliability, and validity in psychometric assessments.
• The inventory is designed to be relevant to workplace learning and feasible for administration in clinical settings.

Conclusions:

• The validated Workplace Learning Inventory provides a robust tool for assessing self-regulated learning in health sciences students during workplace learning.
• This inventory is expected to stimulate further research in educational psychology concerning clinical practical learning.
• The rigorous development process ensures the quality and applicability of the scales for diverse research questions.