Development and validation of a scale to measure the motivation to pursue a graduate course

The last 20 years of the 20th century saw significant challenges across the Latin America, not only in terms of economic growth but also those of human development. One of those challenges is associated with the improvement of the productivity of organizations and, therefore, the competitiveness of countries. As a result, the related educational, scientific, technological and innovation processes certainly play a central role. Current globalized societies demand a more qualified workforce; hence education has taken a more prominent place in the political agenda in several Latin American countries [1].

For that reason, in the ’80s and ’90s there was a rapid expansion of the educa- tion offered in the region and new higher education institutions were born, especially in the private sector. Besides, the number of students grew noticeably, mainly in master’s programs in countries like Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Colombia [2].

The study of current educational phenomena is not an exclusive task of education professionals; such processes are also investigated by other fields, such as psychology. Advances in psychology have enabled to holistically study the phenomena of education sciences [3], such as the factors that motivate students to continue or abandon education processes.

This research posed a new set of questions regarding graduate courses that matter to education professionals as strategic allies of education systems. Their answers will enable directors of institutions and universities that offer this type of programs to direct their promotional and advertising efforts to reach a greater number of people considering their expectations and needs. Besides, it depicts a clearer outlook of the complexity that it implies for professionals of social sciences, particularly psychology, to understand individuals’ mental dimension and, as a result, analyse their behaviour patterns. This argument is supported by the ideas of Vinet and Rdz, who describe the challenge this social science discipline faces to contribute to the thorough measurement of several constructs of interest in this field [4]. Particularly, psychometrics plays a key role in the creation of instruments that ensure a better performance of professionals in this field [5].

According to the issues mentioned above, this research sheds light on several educational facts, like the motivating factors to continue with professional-level education. First, some researches are presented in the literature review section. Later, material and methods are described. Then, the main results are presented, where three of four of the constructs are supported by the data. Finally, the discussion and conclusions section is described.