The shortened Study Process Questionnaire: An investigation of its structure and longitudinal stability using confirmatory factor analysis

BACKGROUND: The Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) is a widely used measure of learning approach and was proposed to have three orientations: surface, deep, and achieving, each with an underlying motive and strategy. AIMS: This study aimed to examine the factor structure and longitudinal stability over five to seven years of a modified shortened 18-item version of the SPQ. SAMPLES: A total of 1349 medical students completed the shortened SPQ at application and in their final year of medical school. Three additional cohorts of students completed the shortened SPQ during their third and fourth year of medical school (sample size: 194, 203, 174). METHOD: Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the dimensionality and longitudinal stability of the shortened SPQ. RESULTS: Like the full 42-item version, the shortened SPQ has six subscales and the data are best fit by three second order shared indicator factors (surface, deep and achieving) and a single higher order composite deep-achieving factor. The longitudinal analysis found 26.8%, 26.3%, and 18.7% of the non-attenuated variance of the surface, deep and achieving factor scores in the final year is predicted from the shortened SPQ completed at application to medical school. CONCLUSIONS: The shortened 18-item SPQ has the same six subscales as the full SPQ as well as three second order shared indicator factors (surface, deep, achieving) and one higher order deep-achieving factor similar to that suggested by Biggs (1987). The longitudinal analysis supports this hypothesis and suggests that these learning approaches are partly stable during medical school undergraduate training and partly modifiable under the influence of the educational environment.