Psychometric properties of the curiosity and exploration inventory (CEI-II) and its relationship with the attitudes of Spanish future teachers toward plastic arts education

Curiosity is an important personality trait with regard to human motivation to perform tasks. For this reason, it has been widely studied by academic researchers. This study examines the psychometric properties of all of the validations of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory (CEI-II) to observe which version best adapts to the evaluation of the construct in future teachers from Spain, using a sample of 815 university students ( M age = 20.64; SD = 1.76). Likewise, the profiles of distinct intensities of curiosity were created, in order to observe if statistically significant differences exist in terms of attitude toward the Didactics of Plastic Expression in 328 university students ( M age = 21.56; SD = 2.01). The analyses revealed that a two-factor structure with two correlated items was the version displaying the best psychometric properties. In addition, three curiosity profiles were observed having high, moderate, and low intensities. The High Curiosity profile was found to receive the highest score on positive attitude toward the Didactics of Plastic Expression. To conclude, this study offers novel information regarding curiosity and the attitude of future teachers toward artistic subjects, suggesting the need to continue with this research line.