Validation of Social Studies Achievement Test developed by Ekiti State Ministry of Education for Junior Secondary School Examination (Published)
This study aimed to validate the Social Studies Achievement Test developed by Ekiti state ministry of education for Junior Secondary Three (JS3) students. It was guided by two research questions and adopted an instrumentation research design. The study population consisted of 99,840 JS3 Social Studies students in public secondary schools across the state, from which a sample of 650 students was selected. The instrument validated was the Social Studies Achievement Test for JS3 students developed byEkiti state ministry of education Its reliability coefficient was determined to be 0.76 using the Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20). Initially, 70 items were validated; however, following validation These items were further analyzed to determine their difficulty levels, discrimination indices, and the effectiveness of distracters. Findings revealed that 58 items had acceptable difficulty indices, all 70 items demonstrated positive discrimination indices, and all items functioned effectively in terms of distractors. Mean and standard deviation were used to address the fifth research question, showing that the test items aligned with the core curriculum. Overall, the developed Social Studies Achievement Test exhibited strong psychometric properties, particularly in terms of item difficulty, discrimination, and reliability. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the test could serve as a model for constructing achievement tests in Social Studies and other subjects.
Keywords: Achievement, Reliability, Social Studies, Test, Validation
Standardization and the Impact of Emotional Intelligence Test Subscales on Academic Progress (Published)
The study aims to assess the underlying structure and psychometric properties of the Emotional Intelligence Test among students of different study programs. The study also aimed to measure the impact of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, and self-motivation on the academic progress of the students. Data was obtained from 946 respondents from the student population. The total sample through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the underlying structure of the scale. The high levels of subscales of the Emotional Intelligence Test in the sample suggest that screening for Emotional Intelligence is important in different areas as well as in different study programs. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the structure of five subscales of the Emotional Intelligence Scale. The study indicated a linear relationship between self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, self-motivation, and academic progress. The study found that self-awareness, social awareness, relationship management, and self-motivation were positive predictors of academic progress; meantime, self-management was a negative predictor of academic progress. The strongest predictor of academic progress was self-motivation which explains 45.3% of the variance; at the same time, the least predictor of academic progress was social awareness which explain 6.5% of the variance.
Keywords: Academic, Emotional, Intelligence, Progress, Test, Validation, standardization
Development and Validation of Instrument for Measuring Competency of Secondary School Principals in Akwa Ibom State (Published)
The need for developing and validating a standardized instrument for measuring educational variables and construct is very important in evaluating educational problems. This study is therefore conducted to develop and standardized an instrument for measuring Competency of Secondary School Principals in Akwa Ibom State. In carrying out this study, three research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the instrumentation research design. A total of 1349 teachers were selected from a population of 11,036 teachers to rate their principals in the public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. The instrument developed was titled Principal Competency Scale (PCS). A total of 71 items were written initially for the instrument. The instrument was face validated by seven experts; three lecturers in Educational Evaluation from the Department of Educational Foundations, Guidance and Counselling University of Uyo, two secondary school principals and two secondary school teachers in Akwa Ibom State. The two components of the principal competency measured were named; Human Relation Competency and Administrative Competency. The instrument was then administered to 1149 teachers and the scores were subjected to factor analysis to determine the construct validity of the instrument. Two components were extracted from the scree plot of the principal component analysis. Internal consistency reliability was computed for the instrument using Cronbach Alpha, which yielded a coefficient of 0.897. The instrument after the validation was trial tested on a sample of 200 teachers to determine how it functions among gender of principals. Mean was used in answering research questions and independent t-test was used in testing the hypotheses. The result of the analysis indicated a significant difference in principals’ human relation competency based on gender and no significant difference in principals’ administrative leadership competency based on gender. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that the Principal Competency Scale should be used in measuring the competency of principals in secondary schools regardless of gender.
Keywords: Development, Validation, instrument, secondary school’s principals