Psychometric Properties Assessment of Postgraduate Self-Determined Learning Questionnaire (PSLQ): A Mixed Method Approach

Postgraduate students need to be equipped with self-determined learning skills in order to meet the demands of higher degree and employment in the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0) environment. However, the lack of analysis conducted on item level for validating the measurement of postgraduate students' self-determined learning skills prompted the development of The Postgraduate Self-determined Learning Questionnaire (PSLQ) to fill in the research gaps. This paper aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the newly developed 42-item instrument through a mixed method approach as no study has evaluated the psychometric properties of PSLQ at the item level through Rasch model analysis. Quantitatively, 440 postgraduate students were sampled from a higher education institution in Malaysia to answer the questionnaire. Qualitatively, 10 respondents from science and non-science disciplines were interviewed. The paper reports findings on the psychometric properties of PSLQ through Rasch Rating Analysis and participants' perspectives on the item validity. The results revealed that the items in PSLQ demonstrated good psychometric properties for the measurement of self-determined learning skills of postgraduate students. Implications of the study were discussed in this paper. Future studies can further investigate the psychometric properties of PSLQ according to students' discipline of study. Self-determined learning is a crucial skill for postgraduate students in higher education and future working environment. However, there is a lack of established measures to gauge this skill. The Postgraduate Self-determined Learning Questionnaire (PSLQ) is a newly developed measure to gauge postgraduate students' self-determined learning skills. The objective of this study was to assess the properties of this newly developed questionnaire. A total of 440 postgraduate students from a university in Malaysia have participated in this research. Data were gathered through online survey. In addition, nine postgraduate students from the same university were interviewed. These students were taken from both science and non-science disciplines. The results of the analysis showed that PSLQ can be used to measure postgraduate students' self-determined learning. However, some minor improvement is required. The instrument can be used by researchers, lecturers and university administrators as a tool to determine self-determined learning at the postgraduate level. Implications and suggestions for future investigations were discussed in this paper.