Development of Quality Early Childhood Care and Education (QECCE) Scale: Factor Structural and Psychometric Properties
Keywords:
Quality of Early Childhood Care, Education, Quality Instrument, Structural Equation Model (SEM)Abstract
This research is to design and develop an initial psychometric
evaluation of the Quality Early Childhood Care and Education (QECCE)
scale. The procedure of developing the QECCE item scale was
conducted by using the sequential missed method research approach.
The study involved 2464 samples. Systematic reviews were carried out
to identify the related constructs for the items, and discussion with
expert panels for its validity has been done, followed by an examination
of the psychometric quality of the items. The exploratory factor analysis
(EFA) generated a four factoring model with 22 items. Confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA) has proven all the items achieve the minimum
thresholds of model fit. Based on structural equation modeling (SEM)
outputs, the QECCE scale successfully explained 63.25% of the total
variance. On this basis, the QECCE scale is a valid and reliable survey
instrument specifically for assessing the quality of Malaysian ECCE.
The study confirmed that the predictors for examining the QECCE were
Centre Management (CM), Safety, Health, and Nutrition Management
(SHNM), Leadership and Professional Development (LPD), and Parent
and Community Involvement (PCI).
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.11.23
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Copyright (c) 2019 Wong Kung-Teck, Jamilah Omar, Sopia Md Yassin, Mazlina Che Mustafa, Norazilawati Abdullah, Bahbibi Rahmatullah, Suzani Mohamad Samuri
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