An Exploratory Factor Analysis for Measuring the Four Cs of Lower-grade Primary Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33394/jk.v12i2.20384Keywords:
Measurement Factors, The Four Cs, Lower-Grade Primary Students, Validity, ReliabilityAbstract
This study aims to develop a valid and reliable measurement factor for the Four Cs tailored to lower-grade primary school students. This study employed a quantitative non-experimental scale development and validation design utilizing Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Participants comprised 274 second-grade primary school students from ten schools, divided into two phases: an initial trial (n = 76) for item selection and a main EFA trial (n = 198). Data were collected through structured performance observation checklists administered during STEM-based constructive play activities, with dichotomous scoring subsequently analyzed using JASP. EFA initially yielded six factors; however, the sixth factor, comprising a single item, was excluded from the final model as it did not meet the minimum item requirement for a viable factor. Factor loadings across the five retained factors ranged from 0.413 to 0.992. Cronbach's alpha coefficients indicated adequate to excellent internal consistency across factors: the first factor (α = 0.912), the second factor (α = 0.856), the third factor (α = 0.716), the fourth factor (α = 0.796), and the fifth factor (α = 0.544), with an overall reliability of α = 0.884. The findings indicate that the Four Cs can be measured by five factors: effective communication-critical thinking skills, creative expression skills, collaboration skills, communication skills in problem-solving, and creating skills. This study highlights different results from the P21 learning framework, finding that effective communication fosters problem-solving and critical thinking skills, while collaboration encourages creativity and the creation of original works.
References
Adamson, F., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2015). Policy pathways for twenty-first century skills. In P. Griffin & E. Care (Eds.), Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills (pp. 299–314). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9395-7_15
Beghetto, R. A., & Kaufman, J. C. (2007). Toward a broader conception of creativity: A case for "mini-c" creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 1(2), 73–79. https://doi.org/10.1037/1931-3896.1.2.73
Bialik, M., Martin, J., Mayo, M., & Trilling, B. (2016). Evolving assessments for a 21st century education. Assessment Research Consortium.
Bishop, D. V. M. (2003). The Children's Communication Checklist (2nd ed.). Psychological Corporation.
Boyaci, D. B., & Atalay, N. (2016). A scale development for 21st century skills of primary school students: A validity and reliability study. International Journal of Instruction, 9(1), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2016.9111a
Braun, H. I., Shavelson, R. J., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., & Borowiec, K. (2020). Performance assessment of critical thinking: Conceptualization, design, and implementation. Frontiers in Education, 5, Article 156. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00156
Cherry, K. (2024). Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development explained: Background and key concepts of Piaget's theory. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Daniels, H. (2016). Vygotsky and pedagogy. Routledge.
De Koning, E., Hamers, J. H. M., Sijtsma, K., & Vermeer, A. (2002). Teaching inductive reasoning in primary education. Developmental Review, 22(2), 211–241. https://doi.org/10.1006/drev.2002.0548
Duru, E., Ozgungor, S., Yildirim, O., Duatepe-Paksu, A., & Duru, S. (2022). Pamukkale critical thinking skill scale: A validity and reliability study. International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education, 9(3), 741–771. https://doi.org/10.21449/ijate.1169977
Ekeh, M. C. (2023). Developing early graders' collaborative skills through group-work, play-based pedagogy. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 22(4), 160–177. https://doi.org/10.26803/IJLTER.22.4.10
Ershadi, M., & Winner, E. (2020). Children's creativity. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 180–186). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-374553-8.00216-1
Forman, G. E., & Kuschner, D. S. (1977). The child's construction of knowledge: Piaget for teaching children. Brooks/Cole.
Geisinger, K. F. (2016). 21st century skills: What are they and how do we assess them? Applied Measurement in Education, 29(4), 245–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/08957347.2016.1209207
Goretzko, D., Pham, T. T. H., & Bühner, M. (2021). Exploratory factor analysis: Current use, methodological developments and recommendations for good practice. Current Psychology, 40, 3510–3521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00300-2
Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 569–598. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100416
Hesse, F., Care, E., Buder, J., Sassenberg, K., & Griffin, P. (2015). A framework for teachable collaborative problem solving skills. In P. Griffin & E. Care (Eds.), Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills (pp. 37–56). Springer.
Kowiyah, K., Marini, A., & Wihardjo, S. D. (2020). Rasch model analysis of critical thinking instruments for elementary school. EAI. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.30-9-2019.2291176
Lai, E., DiCerbo, K., & Foltz, P. (2017). Skills for today: What we know about teaching and assessing collaboration. Pearson.
McLeod, S. (2025). Concrete operational stage. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/concrete-operational.html
OECD. (2019). OECD future of education and skills 2030: Conceptual learning framework — Skills for 2030. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project
P21 Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2019). Framework for 21st century learning definitions. Battelle for Kids.
Perret, P. (2015). Children's inductive reasoning: Developmental and educational perspectives. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 14(3), 389–408. https://doi.org/10.1891/1945-8959.14.3.389
Peterson, C. (2017). Exploratory factor analysis and theory generation in psychology. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 8, 519–540. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-016-0325-0
Pollarolo, E., Størksen, I., Skarstein, T. H., & Kucirkova, N. (2023). Children's critical thinking skills: Perceptions of Norwegian early childhood educators. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 31(2), 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2081349
Roekel, D. Van. (2023). Preparing 21st century students for a global society: An educator's guide to the "Four Cs." National Education Association.
Santrock, J. W. (2018). Educational psychology (6th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Slavin, R. E. (2018). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (12th ed.). Pearson Education.
Standar Kompetensi Lulusan pada Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, Jenjang Pendidikan Dasar, dan Jenjang Pendidikan Menengah, Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset, dan Teknologi Republik Indonesia Nomor 5 Tahun 2022.
Taber, K. S. (2018). The use of Cronbach's alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. Research in Science Education, 48, 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2
Thornhill-Miller, B., Camarda, A., Mercier, M., Burkhardt, J.-M., Morisseau, T., Bourgeois-Bougrine, S., Vinchon, F., El Hayek, S., Augereau-Landais, M., Mourey, F., Feybesse, C., Sundquist, D., & Lubart, T. (2023). Creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration: Assessment, certification, and promotion of 21st century skills for the future of work and education. Journal of Intelligence, 11(3), Article 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054
Watkins, M. W. (2018). Exploratory factor analysis: A guide to best practice. Journal of Black Psychology, 44(3), 219–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798418771807
Zhang, C.-Q. (2019). Skill. In D. Hackfort, R. J. Schinke, & B. Strauss (Eds.), Dictionary of sport psychology: Sport, exercise, and performing arts (pp. 249–250). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813150-3.00019-X
Zhou, M., & Brown, D. (Eds.). (2015). Educational learning theories (2nd ed.). Galileo Open Learning Materials. https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/education-textbooks/1
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Author(s)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
License and Publishing Agreement
In submitting the manuscript to the journal, the authors certify that:
- They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, thesis, or overlay journal.
- That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- That its publication has been approved by all the author(s) and by the responsible authorities tacitly or explicitly of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
- They agree to the following license and publishing agreement.
Copyright
Authors who publish with JK agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
Licensing for Data Publication
-
Open Data Commons Attribution License, http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/ (default)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.






