Effect of Test Item Arrangement on Performance in Mathematics among Junior Secondary School Students in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State Nigeria. (Published)
The study investigated the effect of test item arrangement on performance in Mathematics among Junior Secondary School Students in Obio-Akpor L.G.A of Rivers State. The study adopted the quasi-experimental research design. A sample of one hundred (100) Junior Secondary School Students drawn from the population using the simple random and non-proportionate sampling techniques was used for data collection. The sample included three experimental group labelled ‘A-C” and the control group labelled “D” This was selected from a population of 6,777 JS II students from four public schools in the area. A test instrument tagged the “Mathematics Performance Test” which had four types A-D was used. Type A was arranged in ascending order of difficulty. Type B was arranged in descending order of difficulty while type C was arranged based on order of topic presentation in the class. On the other hand, type D was arranged in no particular order. Validity of the instruments was determined using table of specification (TOS) while a general reliability index of 0.96 was determined using Kuder Richardson formular 20 (KR20). Mean, standard deviation as well as t-test analysis were used to compare the mean of each of the group against the control group and test. The findings of the study were that item arrangement based on ascending order of difficulty has a positive and significant effect on students’ performance in mathematics at 0.05 alpha level respectively while item arrangement based on descending order has a positive but insignificant effect on student’ performance in mathematics. Finally, item arrangement based on no particular order of difficulty has a positive and significant effect on students’ performance. It was recommended among others that classroom teachers, test constructors and professional examination bodies should endeavour to arrange items from simple to complex in order to boost students’ morale.
Keywords: : Academic Performance, Test item arrangement, ascending and descending order of difficulty, order of topic presentation