Assessment Toolbox for

International Educators
David Comp
Senior Adviser for International Initiatives in The College
The University of Chicago
dcomp@uchicago.edu
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
Annual Conference
Washington, D.C. ~ May 30. 2008
Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI)
Developed by Larry Braskamp, David Braskamp &
Kelly Carter Merrill.
-Larry Braskamp is a senior fellow at the Association
of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). He
is professor emeritus at the School of Education at
Loyola University Chicago where he also served as
senior vice president for academic affairs for four
years. Braskamp also served as the first executive
director of the Council for Higher Education
Accreditation (CHEA).
Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI)
The GPI is a survey of 46 items specifically designed to
provide self-reports of students’ perspectives in three
domains of holistic student development--cognitive,
intrapersonal, and interpersonal.

The GPI can provide evidence of students’ global

perspectives:
– At entry, during and at graduation from college
– At entry and conclusion of an “education/study abroad”
experience
Braskamp, Braskamp & Carter Merrill, 2008
Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI)
• Theoretical Background of GPI
– The construction of GPI is based on the developmental perspective that
students are on a journey during college. In this journey, students are given
opportunities to reflect on three “big questions”:

• “How do I know?” reflects the Cognitive dimension. Cognitive

development is centered on one’s knowledge and understanding of
what is true and important to know. It includes viewing knowledge and
knowing with greater complexity and no longer relying on external
authorities to have absolute truth.

• “Who am I?” reflects the Intrapersonal dimension. Intrapersonal

development focuses on one becoming more aware of and integrating
one’s personal values and self-identity into one’s personhood.

• “How do I relate to others?” reflects the Interpersonal dimension.

Interpersonal development is centered on one’s willingness to interact
with persons with different social norms and cultural backgrounds,
acceptance of others, and being comfortable when relating to others.

Braskamp, Braskamp & Carter Merrill, 2007

 Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI)
Description of the six GPI scales
• The Cognitive domain consists of two scales: Knowing and Knowledge.

– Knowing. Complexity of one’s view of the importance of cultural context in judging what is important
to know and value.

– Knowledge. Degree of understanding and awareness of various cultures and their impact on our
global society; proficiency in languages.

• The Intrapersonal domain consists of two scales: Identity and Affect.

– Identity. Level of awareness of unique identity; degree of acceptance of one’s ethnic, racial, and
gender dimensions of one’s identity.

– Affect. Level of respect and acceptance of cultural perspectives different from one’s own; degree of
emotional confidence when living in complex situations.

• The Interpersonal domain consists of two scales: Social interactions and Social
responsibility.

– Social Interactions. Degree of engagement with others who are different from oneself; degree of
cultural sensitivity in living in pluralistic setting.

– Social responsibility. Level of commitment to interdependent living.

 Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI)
Validity and Reliability
– Reliability. We conducted two tests of reliability: Cronbach’s alphas for each of
the scales and a primary component analysis. The alpha scores for each scale
range from .52 to .70 (see Table 3). We forced six extracted factors in the
primary component analysis that accounted for 38% of the variance. Four GPI
scales each loaded on their own independent factors (some with the exception of
one or two items) considering a combination of both the highest and second
highest loading scores: Cognitive/Knowing, Cognitive/Knowledge,
Intrapersonal/Affect, and Interpersonal/Social Responsibility. The
Intrapersonal/Identity and Interpersonal/Social Interaction scales did not seem to
load onto any independent factor. The overlapping of scales on each of the
factors is not troubling, but rather encouraging. Theoretically, scholars agree
these factors would all contribute to one concept – global perspective.

– Validity. As students progress through college their development is likely to

increase (Baxter Magolda, 1992; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Presumably,
therefore, as people get older their global perspective may increase as well. We
tabled the mean scores for each scale by participants’ college status (see Table
4). The scores seem to increase as participants have more experience with
college. Indeed independent t-tests confirmed that the differences between the
freshmen and faculty/staff scores are significant for all scales except for the
Cognitive/Knowledge scale. Conclusions from these results are difficult to
interpret since these are not measures of people getting older and more mature
(or not), but rather differences between generations.
Braskamp, Braskamp & Carter Merrill, 2007
 gpi
Global Perspectives Inventory
www.gpinv.org

lbraska@luc.edu