摘要：AbstractImportanceInterest is considered a significant educational construct. A validated instrument that can reliably be used to measure interest across different subject domains is however not available.ObjectiveTo report the findings of two studies that were conducted to test the validity and reliability of a newly designed Individual Interest Questionnaire (IIQ).DesignStudy 1 was a construct validation study involving three independent high school samples from different disciplines. In Study 2 the predictive validity of the IIQ was tested by examining how well the IIQ predicts cognitive engagement and on-task behaviors and attitudes of students.ParticipantsA sample of 230 chemistry, geography, and history high school students (Study 1) and 82 biology high school students (Study 2).SettingHigh schools in Singapore.Main outcome measuresConfirmatory factor analysis, Hancock׳s coefficientH,test of multi-group invariance, cognitive engagement and on-task behaviors and attitudes (i.e., curiosity, enjoyment, self-efficacy, attention, and boredom).ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis for the three samples suggest adequate fit of the data with the hypothesized model: History:χ2/df=1.47;p=.13, RMSEA=.08, CFI=.96; Chemistry:χ2/df=1.41;p=.17, RMSEA=.07, CFI=.98; and Geography:χ2/df=1.51;p=.11, RMSEA=.09, CFI=.94. Reliability analysis revealed high levels of reliability of the IIQ: coefficientHHistory: .81; coefficientHChemistry: 85; and coefficientHGeography: .85. The test for multi-group invariance was ns, suggesting that the factor structure of the IIQ was invariant across the three subjects. The data fitted the predictive path model well:χ2/df=1.60;p=.11, CFI=.98, RMSEA=.09 and the standardized regression weights of individual interest for the outcome measures ranged from: .69 (p<.001) cognitive engagement to −.24 (p=.03) boredom.Conclusion and relevanceThe results suggest that the IIQ is a reliable and valid instrument to measure individual interest across different disciplines and demonstrated adequate predictive validity for cognitive engagement and on-task behaviors and attitudes. The IIQ fills the gap in the literature for a generic instrument to measure individual interest.
