Measuring the Master Adaptive Learner: Development and validity evidence for a revised instrument

The Master Adaptive Learner (MAL) is a model describing the collective skills of planning, learning, assessing, and adjusting that may translate into continually improving clinical proficiency. The objective of this study was to develop a MAL assessment instrument to measure these skills.

1,427 students completed the 36-item candidate MAL instrument. The authors performed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on half of the dataset. The factors and items were determined by eigenvalues, structure, parsimony, and theoretical considerations. Once an appropriate factor structure was identified, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used on the second dataset to confirm results and the global fit.

The final CFA model consisted of four factors: two items in a resilience factor subscale, eight items in a MAL factor subscale, three items in a curiosity/exploration factor subscale, and three items in a motivation/mindset/challenge factor subscale. This model's scaled global fit statistics fit moderately well (CFI = 0.961, RMSEA = 0.041 (0.035, 0.047), SRMR = 0.037), indicating this was an adequate model.

The resultant MAL instrument demonstrated sufficient internal structure validity evidence. The instrument may be useful for a variety of applications including assessment of practice-based learning competencies, coaching, and remediation activities.