The development and validation of the Growing Disciples Inventory (GDI) as a curriculum-aligned self-assessment for Christian education

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Although numerous norm-referenced measures of religiosity and spirituality exist foradults, no assessment of the holistic goals for Christian spiritual development in thecontext of evangelical Protestant schools, geared to adolescents, and using emergingtechnologies, was found. Addressing this lacuna, the purpose of this curriculum studywas to develop and validate the Growing Disciples Inventory (GDI) as a curriculum-alignedself-assessment for Christian education.Using a mixed methods approach, the GDI was constructed in the first phase of thiseducational design research. Experts in the fields of curriculum, assessment, Christianeducation and/or discipleship evaluated the extent to which proposed items were alignedto the Growing Disciples (GD) curriculum framework, and were appropriate to adolescentlearners participating in Christian education. At least four items were included for each of21 constructs within the four GD curriculum processes. The 100-item GDI was furtherrefined through two development cycles of usability testing with adolescents. Using athink-aloud protocol, a proportional quota convenience sample of 16 learners completedthe GDI online, reviewed their online reports, and took the exit survey. Minor refinementswere made with the data from these individual interviews.During the second phase, evidence for the validity of the GDI was evaluated with datafrom a purposive sample of nine educators and 595 Grade 7 through 12 students in 8American, South African, and Australian Seventh-day Adventist schools. High reliabilitywas found in terms of internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas of .855 to .943) andstructural equation modelling (standardized correlation coefficients of .59 to .95) for thefour cyclical and lifelong Christian spiritual development processes of Connecting,Understanding, Ministering, and Equipping. Confirmatory factor analysis throughstructural equation modelling provided evidence of construct validity with an adequatemodel fit. Moderate inter-factor correlations compared to higher correlations within factorsindicated discriminant validity. Learner responses to 7 GDI exit survey items furthersupported the GDI's design and ease-of-use online. Answers to 3 open-ended GDI exitsurvey questions supplied rich qualitative data that corroborated quantitative responses,and added perceptions of the utility and relevance of the GDI as a formative selfassessmenttool to facilitate exploration of strengths and growth points through reflectionand metacognition. The majority of educator interviews indicated favourable perceptionsof the GDI's utility and relevance within their sphere of the global Seventh-day Adventisteducation system.Structural equation model fit evaluation and correlations demonstrated that the GDI is aconsistent self-assessment across gender and grade level. Although a weak correlationbetween country and learner scores was found, qualitative data supports the relevance ofthe GDI in each country. Further validation studies are recommended with larger samplesinternational samples to adequately demonstrate generalizability within the context ofevangelical Protestant education. Analysis of emerging themes in learner responsescorroborated quantitative findings, triangulating evidence for learner engagement and thepositive potential for the GDI's use to facilitate Christian spiritual development. Each studyof reliability and validity undertaken in this mixed methods curriculum research addedmoderate to strong evidence in support of the GDI as a curriculum-aligned selfassessmentfor adolescents participating in Christian education.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University