ANALYSIS OF ITEM AND TEST INFORMATION FUNCTIONS OF SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS IN ECONOMICS IN NORHT-CENTRAL, NIGERIA
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Date
2020
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UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN
Abstract
career prospects, investment decisions and retirement strategies. The 2013 and 2014 WASSCE Economics performance recorded a significant variance with the former performing better than the latter; and this is a source of worry to educationists. This variation may be as a result of quality of test items, composition of different items formats in the test and ability distribution of the examinees. Thus, this study aimed at analyzing the items and test information functions of Senior School Certificate Examination in Economics in North-central, Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to determine: (i) the dimensionality of 2013 WASSCE Economics objective test items; (ii) the dimensionality of 2014 WASSCE Economics objective test items; (iii) the item information function of 2013 WASSCE Economics objective items; (iv) the item information function of 2014 WASSCE Economics objective items; (v) the test information function of 2013 WASSCE Economics objective test items; (vi) the test information function of 2014 WASSCE Economics test items; and (vii) the relative efficiency of the 2013 and 2014 WASSCE Economics test items.
The study employed the descriptive survey design. The population comprised all 133, 153 senior secondary school three (SS3) students in the North-central zone of Nigeria. The target population was all senior school three (SS3) students that offered Economics in their Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE). A sample of 1,120 students was drawn from 32 senior secondary schools in North-central, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedures involving simple random, proportionate and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the sample. The research instruments were WASSCE 2013 and 2014 Economics paper 1, Percentage, Mean, Parallel analysis and Multidimensional Item Response Theory (MIRT) information indices were employed to analyse the data gathered for the study at 0.05 level of significance.
The findings of the study were that the:
1. 2013 WASSCE Economics objective test measured multidimensional traits reflecting 4 dimensions;
2. 2014 WASSCE Economics objective test measured multidimensional traits reflecting 2 dimensions;
3. 2013 WASSCE Economics objective items provide less information with mean of 0.73;
4. 2014 WASSCE Economics objective items provide least information with mean of 0.56;
5. 2013 WASSCE Economics test measured the precision of 17.5% of the examinees that took the test;
6. 2014 WASSCE Economics test measured the precision of 5.4% of the examinees that took the test; and
7. 2013 and 2014 WASSCE Economics test items were less informative, but the 2013 WASSCE Economics test items was relatively more informative than that of 2014 items.
The study concluded that items and tests of 2013 and 2014 WASSCE Economics were good and of the same standard. The implied that Economics items used for the assessment possessed the same multidimensional traits. The study recommended that Examination bodies can re-use the 2013 and 2014 WASSCE Economics items for future examinations.
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Keywords
ITEM, TEST INFORMATION FUNCTIONS, SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS, ECONOMICS, NORTH-CENTRAL, NIGERIA