Confirmatory factor analysis of social environmental sub-components necessary for creativity development of building technology students in Nigeria technical colleges

Abstract

The curriculum of building technology at technical college level is aimed at producing technical graduates with employability skills. Hence, in order to equip the students with creative thinking skill, the componential theory stresses the need for the presence of four basic components. Three of the components identified within the individual domain include: task motivation; creativity relevant-skills and technical skills. The fourth is social environment which is identified as component outside the individual domain. This study focused only on the environment as a component, by determining its sub-components/factors necessary for preparing students for creative thinking skill in Nigeria technical colleges. The design of this study was descriptive survey research design utilizing quantitative method for data analysis. The sample for the study was made up of randomly selected 215 building technology teachers/experts from technical colleges in south western Nigeria. Two research questions were considered, while data collected were analyzed descriptively and with Confirmatory factor Analysis (CFA) using SPSS IBM 21 and AMOS 18 software. The results of the study revealed that the Modification Indices (M I) criteria were met. The factors therefore include: the resources for creativity; peer interaction; adequate space; freedom for show of creativity; non-restriction to creativity and home support. The Cronbach Alpha, Composite reliability and Average Variance Extracted obtained confirmed the Construct validity and reliability of the model.