Using the EPIC (exposure, persuasion, identification, and commitment) to develop a measure of student buy-in to laboratory learning goals

Buy-in has been described as the series of judgements students make when deciding to engage with a pedagogical practice. Buy-in to pedagogical practices is known to have a meaningful impact on students’ engagement in learning environments, making it a construct of interest for researchers and practitioners. This study develops a measure of student buy-in to faculty defined laboratory learning goals by adapting an existing measure which operationalizes the construct in terms of Exposure, Persuasion, Identification, and Commitment (EPIC). The adapted measure presented in this study, deemed the EPIC-LaG (Laboratory Goals), was developed using learning goals for general and organic chemistry laboratory courses and psychometrically evaluated. Evidence related to response process indicated that students were interpreting and responding to EPIC-LaG items as intended. Structural validity evidence provided support for the unidimensional constructs of Exposure, Persuasion, Identification, and Commitment, as well as for the structural model relating the constructs. Single administration reliability evidence provided support for the internal consistency of the items. Finally, evidence of scalar measurement invariance was found for each group in the study, demonstrating the generalizability of the structural model across groups, which provides support for comparisons made between them. When comparisons were investigated, differences in buy-in pathways were identified between general and organic chemistry laboratory courses, and between ‘cookbook’ and argument-driven inquiry style general chemistry laboratory courses. This study provides psychometric evidence to support the interpretation of EPIC-LaG data and serves as a foundation for others interested in adapting the EPIC-LaG to investigate students’ buy-in to their laboratory learning goals.