Assessment of the Reliability and Validity of PLSI in a Turkish Higher Education Institution

Abstract

Learning style is a significant concept particularly in higher education since it both helps learners plan their learning processes appropriately and guides instructors to design their instructional practices accordingly. Paragon Learning Style Inventory (PLSI) was developed through resorting to Jung’s Theory of Psychological Types to assess learning style characteristics, and has been used in higher education successfully. The current study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the 52-item adult version of the inventory in a Turkish higher education institution. Followed by step to assess linguistic equivalence, confirmatory factor analysis with 855 participants to validate the factor structure and reliability studies were conducted. Findings revealed that the fourdimensional inventory did not fit to the data collected in Turkey. Even though the linguistic equivalence and test-retest reliability were retained, the internal consistency of the inventory was relatively low. Thus, an alternative three-dimensional and 25-item model was proposed, which revealed acceptable or ideal fit indices. Therefore, it was concluded that there is a need for further studies to enhance the inventory and adapt it to the Turkish culture.

Keywords

• Learning style
• Paragon Learning Style Inventory
• confirmatory factor analysis
• scale adaptation