Construction and validation of the Basic Scale of Entrepreneurial Competencies for the Secondary Education level. A study conducted in Spain

The impact of entrepreneurship training on the levels of compulsory education has been weak until now. Complementarily to the demand of greater effectiveness in entrepreneurship education, it is a priority to make scientifically verified instruments available to provide useful information about the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2021-04, Vol.16 (4), p.e0249903-e0249903
Main Authors: Cárdenas-Gutiérrez, Antonio Ramón, Bernal-Guerrero, Antonio, Montoro-Fernández, Elisabet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology and Life Sciences
Business education
Compulsory education
Curricula
Demographic aspects
Education
Education history
Education, Secondary
Educational aspects
Entrepreneurial finance
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship education
Innovations
Knowledge
Learning
Pedagogy
Physical Sciences
Quantitative psychology
Questionnaires
Research and Analysis Methods
Secondary education
Social Sciences
Training
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Summary:The impact of entrepreneurship training on the levels of compulsory education has been weak until now. Complementarily to the demand of greater effectiveness in entrepreneurship education, it is a priority to make scientifically verified instruments available to provide useful information about the achievement of the competences needed for the development of entrepreneurial capacities. Our research is focused on the design and assessment of entrepreneurship competency, tackling one the dimension concerning business skills or competences. Specifically, the aim of the study consists in the development, validation and reliability of an instrument, intended for secondary education, created with the purpose of detecting the strictly indispensable entrepreneurial competencies in the basic training of the business profile, the Basic Scale of Entrepreneurial Competencies (BSEC). The research was developed in three phases via qualitative and quantitative methods. In the development phase the items were generated and the dimensions and components of entrepreneurship competency were identified. Also, the content and face validity were carried out, where experts (n = 48) and students (n = 24) took part. In the recruitment phase a multi-stage sampling stratified by conglomerates was performed, obtaining a sample of 1440 students, aged between 11 and 17 years old (M = 14.6, SD = 1.597) and a composition by sex of 679 girls and 761 boys. Construct validity was evaluated in the assessment stage through factor analysis (EFA and CFA). Later, the reliability was studied via the Cronbach´s α coefficient and the stability and reproducibility over time with the test-restest technique. Finally, the convergent and divergent validity were evaluated through the average variance extracted (AVE), the composite reliability (CR) and the square root of the AVE. 44 items were developed in the phase of generating items. After carrying out the validity of the content, there were 14 items with acceptable values in the Content Validity Ratio (CVR.89) and in the Content Validity Index (CVI.92). During the validation of the scale, the results of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a first-order trifactorial structure and a second-order factor. The scale's stability was appropriate, having an ICC = .92. The convergent validity results with Composite Reliability (CR) scores > 0.7 and the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) >. 0.50, along with the square root values of the AVE
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0249903