The Learning Environment
Preferences (LEP) is an objective, recognition-task
instrument based on the qualitative research done over the years on the MID.
The LEP items were drawn both from the Perry position rating criteria used
with the MID and from actual MID student essays available in the CSID data
bank. The instrument is patterned after Jim Rest's Defining Issues Test in
both format and to some extent scoring. The LEP has been used at a wide variety
of institutions and student samples across the nation; at this point we have
several thousand responses in our data bank. The current cost of the LEP is
$1.00 per instrument, including scoring. Scoring includes a summary of the
two major indices of the instrument as well as a breakdown by Perry position
responses; more elaborate analyses can be arranged. Like the MID, an instrument
manual is available from CSID for $10.
Administration & Scoring
of the LEP
The Learning Environment Preferences
is designed for use with student populations, primarily in colleges and universities.
It can be used to measure patterns of longitudinal intellectual development
across various subgroups of students or for pre-post evaluations of specific
courses or groups of courses. Theoretically, there are no age or educational
level restrictions for potential populations. While there is a growing amount
of work with older students and graduate students, a majority of the studies
to date have focussed entirely or largely on undergraduates. On the other
hand, the format and relative low cost of the instrument should encourage
its continued use with a wider range of student populations.
The LEP consists of the five
separate domains, and within each domain there is a list of items or major
aspects related to that particular area. The items are stage prototypic items
derived both from the MID rating criteria and from actual MID essay responses.
Like the Defining Issues Test, each domain begins with the least complex items,
followed by a mixture of the more complex items. Rest's assumption was that
this sequence would help insure that less complex thinkers found their preferences
and stayed with them, while the more complex thinkers would go through the
whole list to find the "best fit." Respondents are asked to rate each item
with respect to its importance to them in an ideal learning environment,
then to rank the top three items overall. The instrument takes most students
30-45 minutes to complete, and thus can easily be done in-class if necessary.
While a controlled and supervised setting is preferable for administering
the measure, it is not required; the LEP can also be assigned as a "take-home"
task. Regardless of the setting, the instructions provided on the instrument
cover sheet should be stressed; in particular, students should be reminded
that they should be thinking of their ideal learning environment and not
be bound by any specific class or type of class.
Scoring Procedures
Since the style and format of
the LEP is patterned after the DIT, it should be no surprise that the scoring
procedures utilized to date have also been adapted from the research on the
DIT. Until recently, the best index for Rest's instrument was also the simplest:
the P Index, the percentage of principled thinking across the dilemmas. In
other research on his model, Kohlberg used an index called the Moral Maturity
Scale (MMS), which incorporated all of the respondent's stage scores into
a single scoring formula. For the LEP, I have adapted both of these conceptual
approaches into scoring indices. The R Index--the percentage of position
5, or relativistic thinking--is analogous to Rest's P Index, while the CCI--Cognitive
Complexity Index--parallels Kohlberg's MMS, and is calculated with a formula
using all of the position preference percentages to produce a single score
ranging from 200 (stable position 2) to 500 (stable position 5). With the
LEP, both these general indices and specific position percentages are available
for analysis. Generally, instrument scoring is handled by the Center; depending
on the nature on the project, however, researchers have the option of on-site
scoring instead of using the Center services.