Development and calibration of the student opportunities for deeper learning instrument

• Published in: Psychology in the schools Vol. 56; no. 9; pp. 1381 - 1412
• Main Authors: Dumas, Denis, Dong, Yixiao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley-Blackwell 01.11.2019; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Classical test theory; Correlation; Educational Opportunities; Ethnicity; Gender Differences; High School Students; Item Response Theory; Learning; Measurement; measurement invariance; Measures (Individuals); multidimensional IRT; Native Language; opportunities for deeper learning; Psychological Studies; Psychometrics; Race; Reliability; Skill Development; test development; Thinking Skills; validity
• ISSN: 0033-3085; 1520-6807
• DOI: 10.1002/pits.22292

This article describes the development and calibration of the student opportunities for deeper learning instrument (SODLI). The SODLI is designed to measure the amount of learning opportunities intended to support higher‐order thinking that students are exposed to through student self‐report, and is expected to be widely useful in psychological research in schools. Here, the psychometric functioning of the SODLI is investigated in a relatively large sample of U.S. high‐school students (N = 963). Using multidimensional item‐response theory methods, a nine‐factor correlated model is determined to fit the data best, and to produce reliable estimates of SODLI dimensions. The SODLI is also shown to exhibit scalar‐invariant measurement properties across sex, race/ethnicity, and language‐background groups, although latent mean differences on some of the SODLI dimensions across those groups were identified.