Instrument Validation for Measuring Circular Economy Concepts in Food Waste Management Course: A Pilot Study

The circular economy (CE) is emerging as a vital concept in sustainable development, aiming to reduce waste, extend product life cycles, and promote resource efficiency. Although circular economy has been widely studied, its practical application in educational institutions has received limited attention, revealing a notable research gap. The study was conducted to gather empirical data on the validity and reliability of the Circular Economy for Vocational Education Food Waste Management Course (CE@FWM) questionnaire. The instrument was developed based on a 9R framework developed by Potting et al. which is Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle and Recover. Using the Modified Delphi Technique, a 74-item questionnaire was developed and pilot-tested with 122 vocational educators across Malaysia. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with principal component extraction and varimax rotation was conducted. The analysis resulted in a refined 58 -item instrument with strong factor loadings ($\geq 0.60$) across three main constructs: Smarter Product Usage (21 items), Extend Product Life Cycles (26 items), and Useful Application (11 items), explaining $57.62 \%, 68.13 \%$, and 59.75% of the variance respectively. Internal consistency reliability was high, with Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from 0.810 to 0.940 across the individual components. The overall reliability coefficient was $\alpha=0.96$, indicating excellent internal consistency. These results confirm that the CE@FWM instrument is both valid and reliable for measuring the understanding and application of circular economy concepts in vocational food waste management education.