Development and validation of the student perception of academic challenge scale

This study focuses on creating a reliable and valid instrument to measure high school students’ perceptions of academic challenge. The research is divided into four phases: qualitative analysis, item development, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and validation. Initial data from college students’ retrospective views and high school students’ interviews identified four key themes of academic challenge: effort, expectations, fit, and coursework. Based on these themes, 72 items were created and refined through expert and target population reviews, resulting in 42 items. The EFA, conducted with a developmental sample, reduced the scale to 25 items across three factors (effort, expectations, fit) after removing problematic items. The revised scale was tested with a new sample, confirming its reliability and validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and correlations with existing measures. The final scale provides a nuanced understanding of academic challenge from the student’s perspective, emphasizing the importance of effort, teacher expectations, and the fit of coursework to student abilities. This instrument can be used to explore the impact of academic challenge on various educational outcomes and to enhance educational practices by aligning them more closely with students’ experiences.