A COMPENDIUM OF SCALES for use in the SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Suggestions for Reading this E-Book
The organization of this e-book allows readers to pick their own starting point. Whereas the
Chapters in Section 1 provide excellent and practical advice on aspects of the scale selection
and development process, each chapter in Section 2 provides a standalone account of that
topic’s validated scales, permitting readers to use each chapter as its own reference guide. In
tracking down these existing scales, readers may be pleased to discover that within the
references section of each chapter, an asterisk is placed next to the reference for each scale
discussed within that chapter. Our hope is that emerging and well-established SoTL researchers
alike will find great value in the general and topic-specific guidance within this e-book regarding
the best practices in scale development, validation, and use.
For educators, this book can also serve as an excellent supplementary text for courses such as
tests and measurements, research methods, and educational assessment. Many of the chapters
provide accessible descriptions that graduate and even undergraduate audiences will
appreciate. Very few resources exist that provide a “compare and contrast” presentation of a
variety of measurement tools, especially within the SoTL literature. The chapters in this e-book
provide students with exemplars of the scale development and validation process while
offering a current account of how SoTL researchers assess different constructs. As an additional
tool, many of our authors also provide pedagogical suggestions for teaching students about the
scales they discuss.
Finally, as our authors note in their individual chapters, many gaps still exist in the development
of validated scales for SoTL use. Thus, our final suggestion for readers is to take inspiration from
the extant literature and take up the challenge of adding to the field’s increasing reliance on
validated measures. It is our hope that, upon developing and validating these much-needed
scales, this e-book will require a second edition to update chapters, add new chapters, and
reconsider the state of scale validation and use in SoTL work.
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