COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE SUBJECT OF CHEMISTRY

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the quality and efficiency of items in multiple-choice test in Chemistry. The aim of the study was establishing the difficulty rank, the discriminating power, and the point-biserial correlation of every item. The sampling and the population included the students of secondary schools. Item-wise statistics was calculated. The results showed that the majority of the items were within acceptable range of difficulty (0.30 - 0.70), implying moderate difficulty. Most items had a good discrimination (above 0.30) indicating their ability to discriminate between low and high performing students. Internal consistency and validity of the test were also confirmed. Also, the majority of distractors proved to be functional. The few items identified as problematically constructed, owing to either low discrimination or ineffectiveness of the distractors, were recommended to be revised. Test had a fair distribution of Revised Bloom taxonomy levels of cognition, especially the Remembering, Understanding, and Applying. It suggests that item analysis, educator training on test development, and correspondence between evaluations and course materials should be used periodically in order to enhance classroom assessment.