Education Survey Instrument Design

Education Survey Instrument Design

Goal

Convert constructs/variables into a usable education research questionnaire or scale with dimensions, items, response options, validity checks, and pilot-test plan.

Use After

Use this skill after one of these stages:

• education-variable-identification
• education-quantitative-study-design
• education-mixed-methods-design
• education-program-evaluation
• education-psychometric-scale-development

Do not expose the skill name to users. Present this as "问卷/量表设计" or "测量工具设计".

Inputs

• Research question(s)
• Variable/construct table
• Target participants: students, teachers, parents, administrators
• Education context: grade, subject, school type, region
• Existing scales, if any
• Target language
• Intended analysis: descriptive, regression, mediation/moderation, SEM, EFA/CFA, evaluation

Workflow

1. Confirm measurement purpose:
   • measure attitudes/perceptions
   • measure behavior/frequency
   • measure ability/performance
   • measure implementation quality
   • screen/group participants
   • validate a new scale
2. Map constructs to dimensions.
3. Search or suggest existing validated scales before creating new items.
4. Decide item source:
   • adopt existing scale
   • adapt existing scale
   • create new items
   • mixed adopt/adapt/create
5. Generate item pool for each dimension.
6. Choose response format:
   • 5-point or 7-point Likert
   • frequency scale
   • agreement scale
   • semantic differential
   • multiple choice
   • open-ended supplement
7. Add reverse-coded items only when useful and age-appropriate.
8. Build questionnaire sections:
   • consent/instructions
   • demographics/background
   • core scale items
   • behavioral/context items
   • optional open-ended item
9. Plan expert review/content validity.
10. Plan pilot test:

• comprehension check
• item distribution
• missing response rate
• reliability
• exploratory factor analysis if enough sample

11. Output questionnaire draft and validation plan.

Tool Calls

Literature Search for Existing Scales

Semantic Scholar:

curl "https://api.semanticscholar.org/graph/v1/paper/search?query=student%20writing%20self-efficacy%20scale%20education&limit=10&fields=title,year,abstract,citationCount,authors"

OpenAlex:

curl "https://api.openalex.org/works?search=student%20writing%20self-efficacy%20scale%20education&per-page=10&mailto=YOUR_EMAIL"

Search patterns:

[construct] scale education students
[construct] questionnaire validation teachers
[construct] instrument reliability validity education
[construct] Chinese scale students

Questionnaire Deployment Tools

Qualtrics: https://www.qualtrics.com/
SurveyMonkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/
Google Forms: https://forms.google.com/
问卷星: https://www.wjx.cn/
腾讯问卷: https://wj.qq.com/

Reliability and Item Analysis Tools

R:

install.packages(c("psych", "tidyverse", "GPArotation"))
library(psych)
alpha(data_frame_of_items)
describe(data_frame_of_items)
fa(data_frame_of_items, nfactors = 3, rotate = "oblimin")

jamovi:

https://www.jamovi.org/
Analyses -> Factor -> Reliability Analysis
Analyses -> Factor -> Exploratory Factor Analysis

JASP:

https://jasp-stats.org/
Factor -> Reliability Analysis
Factor -> Exploratory Factor Analysis

Output Format

1. Construct-Dimension Map

2. Questionnaire Item Table

3. Expert Review Form

4. Pilot-Test Plan

Age-Appropriate Item Rules

• For primary students, use short sentences and concrete behaviors.
• Avoid double-barreled items.
• Avoid abstract constructs unless translated into observable behavior.
• Avoid excessive reverse-coded items for young learners.
• Use examples only if they do not bias answers.

Quality Rules

• Prefer validated instruments when available.
• Do not claim a new scale is valid before testing.
• Separate dimensions clearly; each item should measure one thing.
• Align every item to a research question or variable.
• Record whether items are adopted, adapted, or newly written.
• Plan permissions/citations for existing scales.

User-Facing Closure

End by asking the user to confirm practical constraints:

这版问卷已经可以进入专家审阅和小样本预测试。接下来需要确认：你的对象是几年级学生？预计能收集多少份问卷？是否需要我把它整理成问卷星/Qualtrics 可导入格式？