Differential Item Functioning of Mathematics Joint Mock Multiple-Choice Test Items in Kwara State, Nigeria
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Date
2020-08
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Publisher
Misamis University, H.T. Feliciano Street, Ozamiz City, Philippines
Abstract
Test in educational settings is one of the assessment techniques to measure and compare examinees' abilities. This study examined differential item functioning of mathematics joint mock multiple-choice test items conducted by the Kwara State Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development. The descriptive research design of the survey type was adopted in carrying out this study. The population comprised all senior secondary students, while the target consists of senior secondary II students in Kwara State. The sampling procedure used was multi-stage in stratified and simple random sampling techniques at different selection stages and, therefore, sampled 1,062 examinees. The measuring device
used for the data collection was the 2018/2019 academic session Joint Mock Mathematics Multiple-choice items that contained 50 items. To validate the measuring device, the Item Level Content Validity (I-CV) was calculated and obtained a coefficient of 0.91. Two research questions were prepared and answered using Mantel-Haenszel chi-square. The first finding revealed that 16 items were flagged DIF, 12 items were for reference (male), and four were for focal (female) group. The second finding also showed that out of 20 items that were flagged DIF, eight were for reference (urban schools) group, and 12 were for focal (rural schools). While carrying out this research, the researchers observed that the quality of the assessment device being used is another important factor that hinders students' performance in mathematics at the school and external examinations levels. It was recommended that in the construction of any test items, a test developer must ensure that irrelevant clues are avoided that may allow examinees to interpret tests differently.
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Main article
Keywords
assessment device, Item Level Content Validity, rural school, student’s performance, urban school
Citation
Jimoh, M. I., Daramola, D. S., Oladele, J. I., Sheu, A. L. Ogunjimi, M. O. (2020). Differential Item Functioning of Mathematics Joint Mock Multiple-Choice Test Items in Kwara State, Nigeria. Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 9, (1), 67–92.