Evaluating the Construct Validity of Self-Assessment Tools for Students’ Adaptive Expertise

The construct validity of self-assessment tools designed to measure adaptive expertise, which is crucial for today’s complex work environments, is evaluated in this study. Although students are still novices and do not yet possess fully developed adaptive expertise, its fostering and assessment should begin during higher education, when future professionals build the foundations of their expertise. Three instruments originally developed for working professionals, the Adaptive Expertise Inventory, the Self-Adapt, and the Adaptability Scale, were examined for their applicability to higher education students. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed strong construct and ecological validity for Self-Adapt and the Adaptability Scale, consistent with previous research. The Adaptive Expertise Inventory showed less stability, with inconsistent factor loadings, potentially related to its prompt or conceptual framework. Exploratory factor analysis indicated no shared factor structures across instruments, suggesting limited conceptual clarity. A flexible approach is recommended to match instruments with program needs, particularly for high-stakes decisions such as advancement. Combining generic, domain-specific, and qualitative tools at the program level may yield deeper insights. These tools should be evaluated using adapted quality criteria to ensure valid and reliable student assessments.