assessment of perception towards the concept map approach in health professions education: a psychometric study

Background: concept maps serve as an effective visual and organizational tool that aligns well with the interactive and engaging nature of game-based learning. this study aims to evaluate the validity, reliability, and exploratory factor analysis of a tool for assessing student perception of the concept map approach as a teaching method. methods: it was a descriptive cross-sectional study. the study was carried out in three phases: validity assessment, reliability assessment, and factor analysis of the tool. the questionnaire, adapted from chiou et al., consisted of 10 items on a 5-point likert scale. the content and face validity of the persian version were assessed using the delphi technique with 15 medical education experts over three rounds. moreover, quantitative content validity was determined using the content validity ratio (cvr) and content validity index (cvi). reliability was evaluated through internal consistency (cronbach's alpha) and reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient (icc)). exploratory factor analysis was performed using the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) index, bartlett’s test, principal component analysis, and varimax rotation. finally, data were analyzed using ibm spss statistics 24. results: the results confirmed the face and content validity, with all items scoring above 0.94 for cvr and above 0.79 for cvi. internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha = 0.86) and reproducibility (icc = 0.83) indicated desirable reliability. exploratory factor analysis also revealed two domains: facilitating learning and encouraging learning, with significant factor loadings for all items. conclusion: the study confirmed the validity and reliability of the tool for measuring students' attitudes toward the concept map approach in iran. given the importance of assessing student reactions to innovative teaching methods, this instrument is recommended for evaluating attitudes toward concept map-based teaching.