DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL VALIDATION OF THE REFLECTIVE ACTS SCALE (RAS)

Abstract

Reflective thinking is widely recognised as a fundamental component of
meaningful learning, metacognition, and professional development. Despite its theoretical importance, reflection remains difficult to measure empirically because it is frequently conceptualised as an internal cognitive process rather than as a set of observable behaviours. Building on the reflective acts framework proposed by Kurt (2018), the present study aimed to develop and
provide initial psychometric validation for the Reflective Acts Scale (RAS), an instrument designed to operationalise reflective engagement in learning
contexts. An initial pool of items was generated from the reflective acts taxonomy and the broader literature on reflective learning, metacognition, and self-regulated learning. Data were collected from 129 higher-education
students and analysed using exploratory factor analysis. Exploratory factor
analysis supported a two-factor structure, confirmed through parallel analysis, accounting for 49.53% of the total variance. These factors were interpreted as Reflective Meaning-Making and Critical Reflection. The
refined 16-item instrument demonstrated high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of .986 and .935 for the two dimensions
respectively. The study contributes to reflection research by translating a
conceptual taxonomy of reflective acts into a measurable instrument and
providing empirical evidence for its initial structural validity and reliability.
The Reflective Acts Scale offers researchers and educators a new tool for
examining reflective engagement as observable learning behaviour.