Development of an Instrument for Assessing Undergraduate Science Students’ Perceptions: The Problem-Based Learning Environment Inventory

This study aimed to develop and validate a problem-based learning environment inventory which would help teachers and researchers to better understand student views on problem-based learning environments. The development of the inventory included the following four steps: Item Formulation; Content Validation; Construct Validation; Reliability Calculation. It has 23 items allocated to four scales: (1) Student Interaction and Collaboration; (2) Teacher Support; (3) Student Responsibility; (4) Quality of Problem. Each learning environment item had a factor loading of at least 0.40 with its own scale, and less than 0.40 with all other scales. The results of the factor analysis revealed that the four scales accounted for the 53.72% of the total variance. The alpha reliability coefficient for the four scales ranged from 0.80 to 0.92. According to these findings, the Problem-based Learning Environment Inventory is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in the field of education.