Friday, 14 January 2005 - 12:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Poster Session I

Education Participation Scale -Modified: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis in a Sample of Licensed Social Workers

PURPOSE: Licensed social workers in Maryland and many other states are required to obtain continuing professional education in order to maintain their license. The field of social work recognizes the need to build and maintain its unique knowledge base and to disseminate that knowledge to keep social workers current. Continuing professional education (CPE) is one way to accomplish this important goal. Fox and Miller (1999) found motivation plays a central role in the process of learning and deciding to participate in continuing education programs. Future research in continuing education would benefit from reliable and valid measurement instruments to measure motivational orientations related to CPE. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the measurement model and theory underlying the Educational Participation Scale –Modified (EPS-M; O’Conner, 1979, 1982) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

The EPS-M and its different versions have been evaluated by researchers using principal components analysis (PCA) or exploratory factor analysis (EFA), however, no studies were found that examined the construct validity of the EPS-M with a sample of licensed social workers.

METHOD: A survey containing the EPS-M scale was sent to a random sample of 225 licensed social workers in the state of Maryland. The EPS-M is a 56 item, retrospective, paper and pencil scale, with a 10-point response category from “no influence” to “very much influence,” designed to identify motivation orientations towards continuing education activities. The scale does not have an overall score, but provides mean scores on the 6 subscales. CFAs were conducted for each subscale separately and for the full six subscales model with and without second order factors. Equivalent models were considered.

RESULTS: The results indicate that there is a good fit with treating each of the subscales as an independent and uncorrelated constructs. The fit indices were all above .90 for the CFI, NFI, and GFI, and Chi-squared/df were < 3 for all six subscale measurement models. Results support that the EPS-M is a valid and reliable measure identifying motivation orientations of social workers who pursue continuing professional education. Scores on each of the six scales were computed using the 6 independent factor model. Mean scores ranged from 1.38 (Improvement in Social Relations) to 6.45 (Professional Knowledge).

IMPLICATIONS: Current theory suggests that personal factors such as motivation may influence participation in, learning from, and change in practice because of CPE activities (Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Clark, 2001; Gregoire, Propp, & Poertner, 1998; Ottoson, 1997). The EPS-M is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate social workers’ motivational orientations related to CPE and can be used to examine this issue. Such evidence can guide educators, policymakers, and social work administrators to ensure participation in CPE activities achieves the goal of maintaining and enhancing social worker skills required in the field (Association of Social Work Boards, 2003).

See more of Poster Session I
See more of Oral and Poster

See more of Celebrating a Decade of SSWR (January 13 - 16, 2005)