Learning Strategies at Work Scale: a Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Abstract The aim of this study was to gather new evidences of validity for the Learning Strategies at Work Scale (LSW). Especially, we intended to verify the initially proposed factor structure and to reduce items as to obtain a higher level of parsimony. We further addressed testing the LSW’s invariance across occupations, with potentially discrepant work design characteristics (core activities vs. non-core activities). 955 Brazilian professionals that worked in a wide range of occupations participated in this study. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis support the structure of five factors, namely (1) intrinsic and extrinsic reflection, (2) mental repetition, (3) interpersonal help seeking, (4) help seeking in written material and (5) trial and error learning. In order to obtain higher parsimony, based upon psychometric criteria, five items were eliminated, resulting in better fit-indices. A multigroup analysis of this reduced scale showed invariance across the above-mentioned occupations. The study adds validity evidences for the LSW in Brazil.