Development of an instrument to assess the impact of an enhanced experiential model on pharmacy students' learning opportunities, skills and attitudes: A retrospective comparative-experimentalist study

Table 4 Alpha-reliability coefficients, convergent and discriminant estimates for original study scales.

Learning Model: Original Scales	Mean*	Standard Deviation	Number of Items	α^a	r^b	Scale Bias^c	Scale Sensitivity^d
Learning Climate & Preceptor Support	3.92	0.69	9	0.884	0.549	0.110	0.305
Learning Opportunities	3.69	0.55	17	0.884	0.574	0.162	0.180
Patient Consultations (estimated number)	10.67	6.66	1	0.475e	0.475	-0.0168	0.520
Skills Improvement	3.68	0.73	17	0.938	0.476	0.118	0.510
Attitude Enhancement	4.19	0.46	29	0.939	0.479	-0.052	0.261
Overall Study Model Scale (original)	3.87	0.47	70	0.959	0.816	0.121	0.410

α^a – Cronbach's alpha-reliability, and the index of convergent validity; how well do items converge on each scale's central concept.
r^b – Highest correlation with any other scale. Low correlations mean the scale does not duplicate information in other scales.
^c – Pearson r with preceptor vs. student. Non-significant r's indicate absence of bias.
^d – Pearson r (or eta) with study arm. Positive correlations indicate sensitivity to predicting enhanced clerkship.
^e – Since the patient consultation estimate was a single variable measure, its α-reliability estimate is its SMR with the other four indices.

ISSN: 1472-6920