Ahmad Zamri Khairani

Calibrating Attitudes Towards Twenty-First Century Skills Among Residential School Students: A Rasch Model Analysis

Twenty-first century skills are a set of competencies that are important in order to function effectively in the information age. Schools are said to be effective in teaching the skills. As such, the present study takes the initiative to provide more information about students’ attitudes towards these skills. A total of 196 residential school students (male = 91, female = 105) are employed as sample for this study. Attitudes towards twenty-first century skills are conceptualized as self-efficacy measures of the students and operationalized in terms of a 13-item self-rated questionnaire. The responses are analyzed using a Rasch Model software, namely, Winsteps 3.57, where the test score is transformed into equal-interval units of measurement called measure and defined in logits unit. The prime objective of this analysis is to calibrate the skills based on their difficulty. Results showed that making their own goal (measure = 1.78 logits) was the most difficult skill for the students while trying to help others (measure = −1.16 logits) was the easiest.

Assessing Item Difficulty and Discrimination Indices of Teacher-Developed Multiple-Choice Tests

Item analysis is an important procedure to determine the quality of the items. The purpose of this study is to assess two important indices in item analysis procedure, namely (1) item difficulty (p) and (2) item discrimination (D) as well as a correlation between them. The study involves ten 40-item multiple-choice mathematics tests. A total of 1243 Form 2 students from public schools in Penang, Kedah, Perak, and Pahang are employed as sample for this study. Both indices are calculated based on classical test theory framework because of the advantage provided for teachers. On average, only 67 % (min = 50 %, max = 87.5 %) of the items are considered of good quality that can be kept for future testing. There is incomprehensible result regarding the correlation between the two indices. Implication in terms of teachers’ competency in test development is also discussed.