Validation of the 21st Century Skills Assessment Scale for public health students in Thailand: a methodological study

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop and validate the 21st Century Skills Assessment Scale (21CSAS) for Thai public health (PH) undergraduate students using the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 727 first- to fourth-year PH undergraduate students from 4 autonomous universities in Thailand. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires between January and March 2023. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to explore the underlying dimensions of 21CSAS, while confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the hypothesized factor structure using Mplus software (Muthén & Muthén). Reliability and item discrimination were assessed using Cronbach's α and the corrected item-total correlation, respectively. RESULTS: EFA performed on a dataset of 300 students revealed a 20-item scale with a 6-factor structure: (1) creativity and innovation; (2) critical thinking and problem-solving; (3) information, media, and technology; (4) communication and collaboration; (5) initiative and self-direction; and (6) social and cross-cultural skills. The rotated eigenvalues ranged from 2.12 to 1.73. CFA performed on another dataset of 427 students confirmed a good model fit (χ2/degrees of freedom=2.67, comparative fit index=0.93, Tucker-Lewis index=0.91, root mean square error of approximation=0.06, standardized root mean square residual=0.06), explaining 34%-71% of variance in the items. Item loadings ranged from 0.58 to 0.84. The 21CSAS had a Cronbach's α of 0.92. CONCLUSION: The 21CSAS proved be a valid and reliable tool for assessing 21st century skills among Thai PH undergraduate students. These findings provide insights for educational system to inform policy, practice, and research regarding 21st-century skills among undergraduate students.