Development and Psychometric Investigation of an Arts Integrated Assessment Instrument for Educators

Abstract

The development and initial psychometric investigation of the Hocus Focus Analytics (HFA) Scale, an instrument to measure student growth and outcomes using an arts-integrated teaching approach, is reported. A 15-item instrument consisting of five subscales (cognitive, motor, communication, social skills and creativity) was developed to measure the outcomes of students (n = 31) with disabilities through the performance of four different magic tricks. The performance of each trick was assessed by the students' teachers (n = 4) at four different times for a total of 124 completed assessments using the HFA Scale. Results of the present study offer initial support for the psychometric properties of the HFA Scale. Internal consistency as measured by Cronbach's alpha was 0.91 for the total scale. The authors discuss the importance of using an instrument to measure student progress through a multidisciplinary, arts-integrated curriculum and future research implications.